Prenatal iron supplementation reduced anemia, ID, and IDA in pregnant women in rural China, but most women and >45% of neonates had ID, regardless of supplementation. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT02221752.

BACKGROUND Although children’s curiosity is thought to be important for early learning, the association of curiosity with early academic achievement has not been tested. We hypothesized that greater curiosity would be associated with greater kindergarten academic achievement in reading and math. METHODS Sample included 6200 children in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort. Measures at kindergarten included direct assessments of reading and math, and a parent-report behavioral questionnaire from which we derived measures of curiosity and effortful control. Multivariate linear regression examined associations of curiosity with kindergarten reading and math academic achievement, adjusting for effortful control and confounders. We also tested for moderation by effortful control, sex, and socioeconomic status (SES). RESULTS In adjusted models, greater curiosity was associated with greater kindergarten reading and math academic achievement: breading=0.11, p<.001; bmath=0.12, p<.001. This association was not moderated by effortful control or sex, but was moderated by SES (preading=.01; pmath=.005). The association of curiosity with academic achievement was greater for children with low SES (breading=0.18, p<.001; bmath=0.20, p<.001), versus high SES (breading=0.08, p=.004; bmath=0.07, p<.001). CONCLUSIONS Curiosity may be an important, yet under-recognized contributor to academic achievement. Fostering curiosity may optimize academic achievement at kindergarten, especially for children with low SES.

Maternal iron status is thought to be related to postpartum depressive symptoms. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the relationship between pre- and postnatal maternal iron status and depressive symptoms in pilot (n = 137) and confirmatory (n = 567) samples of Chinese women. Iron status was evaluated at mid- and late pregnancy and 3 days postpartum. The Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) was used to assess maternal postpartum depression 24–48 hours after delivery and 6 weeks later. In the pilot sample, correlations between early- and late-pregnancy maternal Hb and EPDS scores at 6 weeks were r = 0.07 and −0.01, respectively (nonsignificant). In the confirmatory sample, the correlations between maternal iron measures (Hb, MCV, ZPP, ferritin, sTfR, and sTfR Index) in mid- or late pregnancy or 3 days postpartum and EPDS scores shortly after delivery or at 6 weeks were also low (r values < 0.10). EPDS scores in anemic and nonanemic mothers did not differ, regardless of sample or timing of maternal iron status assessment. In addition, women with or without possible PPD were similar in iron status in both samples. Thus, there was no relationship between maternal iron status and postpartum depression in these samples.

Iron supplementation in Chinese infants reduced ID at 9 mo without adverse effects on growth or illness. Effects of iron supplementation in pregnancy were observed only when higher amounts of iron were distributed in infancy. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT00613717.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Insufficient iron levels for optimal fetal and infant development is a concern during pregnancy and infancy. The goal of this study was to assess the effects of iron supplementation in pregnancy and/or infancy on motor development at 9 months.