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Tuesday, December 30, 2008

How to Get a Better Brain Development for Your Child

By Michael Byrd

When and how to shape a child's brain development is crucial. Many propose computer programs. But experts have the opinion that it would be useless to do it once the child's brain development has actually stopped.

An excellent time to help with a child's brain development is even before the baby is born up until it reaches three years of age. This is the best time to have the most impact on the child's brain development and its ability to learn for the rest of their life.

It may appear unusual to begin even before a child is able to read, write or reason, but there are studies to back this and it has shown that all these skills begin to develop even before a child goes to kindergarten.

Recently there was a research study conducted that was published in Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology [Vol. 42: 174-181], where doctors used 56 babies as their subject, and they were as young as 5 days old. Their diets were filled with omega 3 fish oil fatty acids and DHA.

Those who were given fish oil supplements proved to have a significantly higher cognitive and motor ability on the "Mental Development Index" as compared to those who were not.

This group of doctors has come to conclude that an early dietary supplement of fish oil with DHA plays a dynamic part in determining great improvement in performance and mental development in full term babies.

Research conducted among premature babies, which was published in the Clinics of Perinatology, [Vol. 22(1):157-75], discovered that even premature babies can also have benefits from fish oil. After they were supplemented with omega 3 fatty acids and DHA, a remarkable improvement was seen in their cognitive and visual development.

These are only a few of the several studies conducted which can give proof that the secret to a child's brain development is getting sufficient amounts of omega 3 with DHA.

DHA is a very abundant long-chain omega 3 in the brain tissue. Around 95% of these lipids are present during birth and grow to be part of the brain tissues while the baby is in the uterus and during the first year of life.

Expectant moms need to take in more fish and get fish oil supplements. This is good to give their baby's brain development a boost from the start and give them a good chance of having a more intelligent baby in the future.

After that, be sure that you breast-feed during the first year. High amounts of omega 3's can be found in breast milk.

Research that was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition illustrated that even moderate amounts of dietary fish oil with DHA will radically elevate breast milk content. [Vol. 40, 780-785]

The study on brain development influenced my wife to use fish oil during her pregnancy and nursing and also supplement the diet of our children with salmon oil while they were just six months old.

We would remove the oil from the capsules and place it in spoons then feed it to them. Now, we get comments on how smart they are and their good test scores can prove it.

But the best part is they are happy and healthy children too. Try fish oil on your kids and you will be thankful you did.

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