Greetings! Please Share & Subcribe.
Children in rural Nepal whose mothers were given iron and folic acid supplements during pregnancy were smarter, more organised and had better fine motor skills than children whose mothers did not get them, US researchers said on Tuesday.
They said ensuring that pregnant women get this basic prenatal care could have a big effect on the educational futures of children who live in poor communities where iron deficiency is common.
'Iron is essential for the development of the central nervous system,' said Parul Christian, an expert in international health at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, whose study appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Ms Christian's team studied 676 school-age children whose mothers had been in a clinical trial in which some got iron and folic acid supplements and other nutrients while they were pregnant. About 80 per cent of the children - aged 7 to 9 - were enrolled in school.
Iron deficiency is the most common and widespread nutritional disorder in the world, affecting 2 billion people, according to the World Health Organization.
Early iron deficiency can interfere with nerve development, biochemistry and metabolism, hampering both intellectual and fine motor development.
ST
0 Comments