Omega-3 Fatty Acids, The Smart Child Learning Game

January 28th, 2006 - A recent clinical study reported by BBC News said that child learning and intelligence in young children improves with mothers consuming omega-3 fatty acids during their pregnancy. It is a scientific fact that breastfeeding increases a child's intelligence and that one of the key nutrients responsible for this increase in child learning are omega-3 fatty acids. Standard infant formulas contain minuscule amounts of omega-3 fats like DHA. The omega-3 fat DHA is crucial to the optimal development of the brain in infancy and childhood. A good healthy brain is how the game of life should start out.

A health study conducted in Avon, UK, looked at 9,000 women and children and found that those who had consumed less omega-3 fatty acids had lower IQs and as a child had a harder time learning new skills and concepts.

Institutes of Health in the US researched and calculated the study data gathered in the Avon study and came up with the following statistics. The women with the lowest intake of omega-3 in their diet had children who on average were six points lower on learning/verbal IQ.

A child at age three and a half years old who ate the most fish, food with omega-3 fatty acids, or were supplemented with omega-3 fatty acids had the best fine-motor skills and learning habits. DHA is needed, especially for the delicate neural synapses which are composed entirely of DHA to facilitate these new child learning skills.

When a child had lower amounts of omega-3 fatty acid in their diets there was more of a tendency to have problems with social interactions such as making friends or learning new concepts. This was the case 14% of the time in 17 year olds whose mothers did not eat much omega-3 during pregnancy compared to 8% that had mothers that had the highest intake of the omega-3 essential fatty acid. Side fact, Japanese parents have been giving their kids omega-3 supplements for years to improve their grades, and it works.

The researchers strongly believe that the lack of omega-3 fatty acid in a mother’s diet during pregnancy is extremely important in the developing a child’s brain to facilitate maximum learning ability and overall child health. The brain is made up of 60% of fat, of which about 30% is made up of omega-3 fatty acids (EPA and DHA). Researches have shown that a child with high levels of omega-3 fatty acids develops better neural pathways when exposed to learning games over a long period of time vs. a child with low levels of omega-3 fatty acids.

Scientists are also now revealing how all kinds of learning and mental disorders including ADD/ADHA, Parkinson's disease, depression, Alzheimer's disease, dementia, and schizophrenia are connected with deficiencies in the essential fatty acids, and with an imbalance between omega-6 and omega-3 fats. For example, a child with a learning disability like attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADD/ADHD) has been shown to have low levels of DHA in their blood.

“Let the child learning game begin!”

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