Visual, Cognitive, and Language Assessments at 39 Months: A Follow-up Study of Children Fed Formulas Containing Long-Chain Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids to 1 Year of Age

Auestad, Nancy; Scott, David T.; Janowsky, Jeri S.; Jacobsen, Cynthia; Carroll, Robin E.; Montalto, Michael B.; Halter, Robin; Qiu, Wenzi; Jacobs, Joan R.; Connor, William E.; Connor, Sonja L.; Taylor, James A.; Neuringer, Martha; Fitzgerald, Kathleen; Hall, Robert T.

doi:10.1542/peds.112.3.e177

Cited by 213 publications

(155 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…No sex difference was reported in the previous study, but it fits the assumption that mental advantageous effects may be more pronounced in boys, who in general mature more slowly. From the previous report the effect of DHA on language development appears to be transient as no difference was found beyond the second year of life [11], which is in agreement with the results of our over-all group comparisons. However, we did find a significant correlation between language scores at one and two years of age, as also shown in previous data [34].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

“…Scott et al interpreted the negative association between DHA intake of formula-fed infants and 14 month vocabulary as an adverse effect [14]. They could however not show any difference in linguistic skills or IQ at three years of age [11]. In the present study, vocabulary at one year of age was significantly associated with that at two years of age and the boys of the FO-supplemented mothers still had the poorest linguistic skills when they were two years old.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 60%

“…A meta-analysis has shown an approximate 3 IQ-point benefit of breastfeeding when compared to infant formulas [5]. Some randomized supplementation studies, comparing term infants fed formulas enriched with DHA or DHA and n-6 PUFA (arachidonic acid (AA) or gammalinoleic acid) or standard infant formulas, have shown beneficial effects on cognitive development [6][7][8][9], but other studies did not confirm this [10][11][12][13][14]. Furthermore, one study found a transient negative effect on linguistic development in infants supplemented with DHA [11,14].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Early language development has in a single combined randomized and cross-sectional study been reported to be associated with early DHA-intake [14]. The effect of DHA-intake was observed at 14 months of age using a parent-report instrument, the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory (CDI) [14] but was not found at 39 months of age with developmentally appropriate tests of receptive and expressive language [11]. Until this effect on language development has been confirmed in other randomized studies this could be as chance finding.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Maternal fish oil supplementation in lactation: effect on developmental outcome in breast-fed infants

Lauritzen¹,

et al. 2005

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-Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) accumulates in the brain during the 1st and 2nd years of life. The objective of this study was to see if an increased content of DHA in breast-milk via maternal fish oil (FO)-supplementation affects mental development in term infants. one hundred twenty-two Danish mothers with a habitual fish intake below the population median were randomized to 4.5 g·d -1 of FO or olive oil (OO) for the first four months of lactation. Fifty-three mothers with habitual fish intake in the highest quartile were included as reference group. The effect of the resulting increase in infant DHA-intake and RBC-DHA level was assessed on problem solving ability at nine months and language at one and two years of age. Infants in the three groups performed equally well on the problem test and no association was observed between problem solving and erythrocyte-DHA at four months. Passive vocabulary at one year was lower in the children of the FO-compared with the OOgroup (P < 0.05), but no differences were found at two years of age. Word comprehension at one year was inversely associated with erythrocyte-DHA at four months. The trial indicate a small effect of DHA levels in breast-milk on early language development of breast-fed infants.docosahexaenoic acid / breast-milk / infant development / long-chain n-3 fatty acid / optimal dietary intake Abbreviations: AA: arachidonic acid; CDI: communicative development inventory; DHA: docosahexaenoic acid; FO: fish oil; LCPUFA: long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid; OO: olive oil; PUFA: polyunsaturated fatty acid; RBC: red blood cells.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 60%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Maternal fish oil supplementation in lactation: effect on developmental outcome in breast-fed infants

Lauritzen¹,

et al. 2005

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“…A better approach is to titrate the intake of DHA against the functional outcome of interest in intervention studies. The effect on visual and intellectual development of supplementation of formula milk with LCPUFA has been extensively studied (Lucas et al, 1992(Lucas et al, , 1998Birch et al, 1998;Horwood et al, 2001;Willatts, 2002;Auestad et al, 2003;O'Connor et al, 2003) and, on balance, the evidence suggests that an intake of preformed n-3 LCPUFA may be beneficial. Unfortunately, there are very few studies that deal specifically with supplementation during pregnancy.…”

Section: Implications For Dietary Recommendationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of placental function on fatty acid requirements during pregnancy

Haggarty¹

2004

Eur J Clin Nutr

186

156

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The fetus has an absolute requirement for the n-3/n-6 fatty acids and docosahexaenoic acid (22:6 n-3; DHA) in particular is essential for the development of the brain and retina. Most of the fat deposition in the fetus occurs in the last 10 weeks of pregnancy. The likely rate of DHA utilisation during late pregnancy cannot be met from dietary sources alone in a significant proportion of mothers. De novo synthesis makes up some of the shortfall but the available evidence suggests that the maternal adipose tissue makes a significant contribution to placental transport to the fetus. The placenta plays a crucial role in mobilising the maternal adipose tissue and actively concentrating and channelling the important n-3/n-6 fatty acids to the fetus via multiple mechanisms including selective uptake by the syncytiotrophoblast, intracellular metabolic channelling, and selective export to the fetal circulation. These mechanisms protect the fetus against low long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid (LCPUFA) intakes in the last trimester of pregnancy and have the effect of reducing the maternal dietary requirement for preformed DHA at this time. As a result of these adaptations, small changes in the composition of the habitual maternal diet before pregnancy are likely to be more effective in improving LCPUFA delivery to the fetus than large dietary changes in late pregnancy. There is little evidence that DHA intake/status in the second half of pregnancy affects visual and cognitive function in the offspring, but more studies are needed, particularly in children born to vegetarian and vegan and mothers who may have very low intakes of DHA.

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