Nutritional supplementation, maternal education, and cognitive development of infants at risk of malnutrition

Abstract

Infants born to families at risk of malnutrition were studied prospectively from the beginning of the 3rd trimester of the mother's pregnancy until the child reached 3 yr of age to ascertain the effects of nutritional supplementation and/or a maternal education program on their cognitive development. Four hundred thirty-three families were assigned randomly to six groups: group A served as a control; group B received the supplement from the age of 6 months to 3 yr; group C received the supplement during the 3rd trimester of pregnancy and the first 6 months of the child's life; and group D received the supplement throughout the entire study period. In addition, group A1 was enrolled in a maternal education program but received no nutritional supplement and group B1 received both treatments. The Griffiths test of infant development was administered at 4, 6, 12, 18, 24, and 36 months of age, and the Corman-Escalona Einstein scale was administered at each age up to 18 months. Children who received food supplementation performed better than those who did not, especially on subtests that were primarily motoric. The effect of food supplementation on behavior appeared to be contemporaneous. In addition, the treatment effects were more pronounced for girls than for boys in this sample. Although these interventions reduced the gap in cognitive performance between lower and upper socioeconomic classes, a disparity nevertheless remained by the end of the study.

Linear Growth and Child Development in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Meta-Analysis

“…85,86 A few trials of energy supplementation have also indicated improved cognitive development for undernourished children or those at high risk of malnutrition. [87][88][89] Our finding that linear growth in the first 2 years of life appears to be a stronger independent predictor of both early and later childhood cognition as compared with growth after 2 years of age also corroborates a growing body of neuroscientific research showing that exposure to environmental and biological adversity during early sensitive periods of brain development can be particularly detrimental to cognitive development. 90 We found a significantly muted cross-sectional association of HAZ with cognition for children .2 years old.…”

Developmental delay in HIV-exposed infants in Harare, Zimbabwe

“…One study reported that food supplementation for pregnant mothers in their third trimester and for infants up to six months of age did not benefit growth of children with LBW (Waber, et al, 1981). This supports that foetal and infant growth and development is dependent on maternal nutrition (Wu, et al, 2004), whereby growth is most susceptible to deficiencies of nutrients (protein and micronutrients) during implantation (day five to ten postfertilisation) and the period of rapid placental development (first trimester of gestation) (Waterland and Jirtle, 2004).…”

Effects of an energy and micronutrient supplement on play behavior in undernourished children in Indonesia

“…The answer may be found in hypotheses which speculate that energy supplementation itself may have differential effects for boys and girls, because of systematic sex differences in temperament (Barrett & Frank, 1987;Waber et al, 1981). Increases in energy for boys may lead to increased toddler`masculine behaviors', ie more high-energy, gross-motor type activities, such as climbing on furniture or running around the room or outside.…”