A brand new Australian study has further reinforced research which shows that regular supplementation with fish oil can be beneficial to childhood development. 

In research reported in the December 2006 online edition of the Archives of Disease in Childhood (Fetal and Neonatal Edition), a study by researchers from the University of Western Australia has found that babies born to women who received regular fish oil supplements during pregnancy had improved hand-eye co-ordination and general cognitive development. 

Lead author of the study, UWA Associate Professor, Susan Prescott, said, “Given the scarcity of data to support the efficacy of fish oil supplementation during pregnancy, our data have potentially important role in informing on the effects of fish oil supplementation on early postnatal infant development,”  

Associate Prof Prescott has previously conducted research which found new-born babies had a reduced risk of allergic reaction to cat and house dust mites if their mothers took fish oil supplements regularly during pregnancy. This research, published in 2003, also found these babies were three times less likely to develop allergies to foods like egg and to have less severe eczema as infants. The new research published in December 2006 involved a small study of 98 pregnant women who were either given daily fish oil or olive oil supplements from 20 weeks of pregnancy until the birth of the child. 

The women, 83 of whom completed the study, did not regularly consume more than two weekly portions of fish and were non-smokers. From 20 weeks of pregnancy, they were given either a daily dose of four grams of fish oil (1.1 grams of eicosapentaenoic acid – EPA – and 2.2 grams of docosahexaenoic acid – DHA) or the same dose of olive oil, providing 2.7 grams of n-9 oleic acid. 

Assoc Prof Prescott said that once the children were two and half years old their cognitive performance was assessed using a range of standard tests on 33 toddlers in the fish oil group and 39 in the olive oil group.  While there were no significant differences in language skills and growth, they found the fish oil groups had higher scores for language comprehension and vocabulary. The researchers acknowledged the findings are preliminary but said they indicate that supplementation with a relatively high dose of fish oil during the last 20 weeks of pregnancy is not only safe but also seems to have potential beneficial effects which are worthy of further exploration. (Published online in December 2006.)