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Lee Swanson Research Update
Maternal DHA May Boost Baby's Immune System
August 2011
A mother’s supplementation with high-dose DHA omega-3 oil while pregnant may help to enhance her infant’s immune system.
A new study, published in the journal Pediatrics, reports that mothers taking 400 mg of a supplement containing docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) had babies who overcame colds faster than babies with mothers not taking DHA.
"DHA supplementation during pregnancy decreased the occurrence of colds in children at one month and influenced illness symptom duration at one, three and six months," said the authors, led by Usha Ramakrishnan, Associate Professor of Global Health at Emory University.
"If women want to take it, it’s unlikely to cause harm in the overall picture of the babies we looked at," Ramakrishnan said. "The magnitude of the benefit seems to be variable and depends on the outcome you looked at. It may not be a benefit for everybody."
Infants in the study were examined at one, three and six months old, and their mothers were asked whether, in the past two weeks, the infants had symptoms such as congestion, phlegm, vomiting and rashes and how long those lasted.
While both groups had similar numbers of illnesses, infants whose mothers had taken DHA saw many illness symptoms reduced.
"At one month, the DHA group experienced 26%, 15% and 30% shorter duration of cough, phlegm and wheezing, respectively, but 22% longer duration of rash," said the researchers.
At three months, Ramakrishnan and her team reported that infants in the DHA group spent 14% less time ill.
"At six months, infants in the DHA group experienced 20%, 13%, 54%, 23% and 25% shorter duration of fever, nasal secretion, difficulty breathing, rash and ‘other illnesses,’ respectively, but 74% longer duration of vomiting," they said.
While this shows that the duration of cold symptoms were shorter in children whose mothers had taken DHA, the researchers noted the worrying finding that those children also had rashes and bouts of vomiting lasting longer.
"We don’t know what to make of it and when you’re looking at a whole bunch of things, some are significant and some aren’t," said Ramakrishnan, who added that the research team is continuing to investigate the long-term effects of DHA.
Pediatrics; Published online ahead of print.
