Study Says Fish Oil During Pregnancy Is Good For Babies
Study Says Fish Oil During Pregnancy Is Good For Babies, (Health.com) — Pregnant women who consume plenty of omega-3 fatty acids from supplements or natural sources such as salmon may be helping to fortify the immune system of their babies, a new study in the journal Pediatrics suggests.
Infants whose mothers took supplements containing docosahexaenoic acid, or DHA—one of the two main ingredients in fish oil—had fewer days with cold symptoms during their first six months of life than infants whose mothers received a placebo, the study found.
Newborns in the DHA group were also slightly less likely to come down with a cold in the first place.
Though promising, the new findings are preliminary. And the researchers say it’s too soon for doctors to advise moms-to-be to take DHA supplements as an essential part of their pregnancy diet.
“Recommending women to take a dose of up to 400 milligrams of DHA during pregnancy would be safe, [but] how much of a benefit there is we don’t know yet,” says Usha Ramakrishnan, PhD, the lead author of the study and an associate professor of global health at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health, in Atlanta.
[Source: Health.com]








