Early Supplementary Feeding and Cognition: Effects over Two Decades

Abstract

This Monograph reports results from a study of the effects of supplementary feeding of newborn to 7-year-old children on their subsequent performance as adolescents and young adults (11-24 years) on a battery of psychoeducational and information-processing tests. The study, which began in 1969, was conducted in a nutritionally at-risk population in the Department of El Progreso, Eastern Guatemala. The intent was to test the hypothesis that protein deficiency in infants and children delays mental development.We report the effects of the nutritional intervention on cognition during infancy, the preschool period, and, more extensively, adolescence and early adulthood. Issues of differential effects from pre-versus postnatal supplement are excluded; similarly, the current analyses do not attend to the possible differential effect of specific nutrients. BACKGROUNDThis section describes the key theoretical and research issues in international nutrition and in developmental biology and psychology that were dominant at the time the study was launched (1969). The discussion aims to justify the study design that was chosen and the research questions of concern here. International Nutrition and the Protein GapCicely Williams's (1933) description of kwashiorkor and her suggestion that its etiology could be found in a deficiency of "amino acids or protein" became a landmark; thereafter, protein deficiency became the object of I. INTRODUCTIONThis Monograph reports results from a study of the effects of supplementary feeding of newborn to 7-year-old children on their subsequent performance as adolescents and young adults (11-24 years) on a battery of psychoeducational and information-processing tests. The study, which began in 1969, was conducted in a nutritionally at-risk population in the Department of El Progreso, Eastern Guatemala. The intent was to test the hypothesis that protein deficiency in infants and children delays mental development.We report the effects of the nutritional intervention on cognition during infancy, the preschool period, and, more extensively, adolescence and early adulthood. Issues of differential effects from pre-versus postnatal supplement are excluded; similarly, the current analyses do not attend to the possible differential effect of specific nutrients. BACKGROUNDThis section describes the key theoretical and research issues in international nutrition and in developmental biology and psychology that were dominant at the time the study was launched (1969). The discussion aims to justify the study design that was chosen and the research questions of concern here. International Nutrition and the Protein GapCicely Williams's (1933) description of kwashiorkor and her suggestion that its etiology could be found in a deficiency of "amino acids or protein" became a landmark; thereafter, protein deficiency became the object of intensive study and international concern.1 For at least the following four decades, protein was considered to be the major limiting factor in the diets of most undernourished ch...

Effects of an energy and micronutrient supplement on play behavior in undernourished children in Indonesia

“…Other confounding environmental effects that covary with nutritional intake were not controlled, and it is acknowledged that undernutrition is part of a multiplicity of adverse conditions such as poverty, poor housing and sanitation, inadequate health care, and poor feeding and child care practices (Dasen & Super, 1988;Engle, 1992). Experimental designs in which subjects are randomly assigned to a treatment, and a signi®cant portion of the child's daily intake is directly determined by supplementary feeding would allow for control of these confounding effects (Pollitt et al, 1993).…”

Child development: Vulnerability and resilience

“…A quasi-experimental design to test the effects of early supplemental feeding on children's cognitive development examined the protective effects of improved nutrition on the risks of low cognitive development associated with poverty [47]. Four villages in a rural Spanish-speaking area were selected for study.…”

“…In the study by Pollitt et al [47] the authors speculate that the increased nutritional input altered the physical growth and motor development of the child, which in turn enhanced the caregiving that the child received rather than having a direct effect on brain growth. For example, the child's energy level may have improved through the nutritional supplementation, and this increased energy level or motoric development may have influenced the kinds of interactions the child could evoke.…”

“…This line of reasoning suggests that in some cultures, parents are more likely to respond to child initiation than to initiate interactions themselves. "Infants and children evoke from others responses that are correlated with their own bio-behavioral characteristics" [47]. Further, children tend to seek environments that are consistent with these bio-behavioral characteristics.…”

The Increase in Length of Infants Who Were Given The Complementary Feeding Mixed of Ripe Awak Bananas Flour and Soybean Sprouts

“…The results of studies conducted Pollitt et al, [12] in Guatemala, namely energy-rich foods i.e. granting of 682 KJ and 11.5 g protein during prenatal and 24 months posnatal shows a test score, numerical knowledge, reading and language skills taller than those who received low-energy food that is of 246 KJ.…”