Pregnancy Diet, Lifestyle Impact Neurodevelopment of 2-Year-Old Children, Study Says

Lifestyle and health during pregnancy significantly regulate child neurodevelopment. A new study revealed that gestational diabetes mellitus, a type of diabetes that develops during pregnancy among women who did not have diabetes prior to pregnancy, may negatively affect 2-year-old children's neurodevelopment. Aside from this, the study also discovered that the mother's diet might support the child's neurodevelopment.

Pregnancy, Diabetes, and Child Neurodevelopment

According to SciTechDaily, the study stresses the role that a mother's lifestyle and health play when it comes to the regulation of the child's neurodevelopment. More specifically, the study looked into how maternal gestational diabetes, diet, and obesity during pregnancy impacted 2-year-old children's neurodevelopment. The research was included in the Pediatric Research journal.

The research at the University of Turku looked into the motor, language, and cognitive skills developed by the children. Maternal adiposity was distinguished through air displacement plethysmography during a test on oral glucose tolerance assessed gestational diabetes.

Neuroscience News reports that gestational diabetes and obesity, particularly high body fat mass, negatively impact the mother's metabolism and boost body inflammation. Such are likely mechanisms by which harmful factors affect child neurodevelopment.

According to Lotta Saros, a doctoral researcher from the University of Turku's Institute of Biomedicine, on average, child neurodevelopment based on their data has a normal range. The results demonstrated that 2-year-old children with mothers who had gestational diabetes had poorer language skills compared to mothers who did not have gestational diabetes.

Aside from this, the study also found that a higher body fat percentage in mothers was linked to weaker language, motor, and cognitive skills in children.

Saros notes that their observation is quite unique, considering how prior research has not looked into the link between child neurodevelopment and maternal body composition.

What You Eat Impacts Neurodevelopment of Child

On top of this, the study also demonstrated how better pregnancy diet quality was linked to enhanced language development. Similar findings were observed in fish consumption and child neurodevelopment.

These results show that a good diet should consist of unsaturated fatty acids, which can be found in fish, among other sources. Unsaturated fats, like omega-3 fatty acids, boost child neurodevelopment.

According to Healthline, other foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids are oysters, flaxseeds, chia seeds, walnuts, and soybeans. Some fish that are extremely rich in these unsaturated fats are mackerel, salmon, herring, sardines, and anchovies.

Professor Kirsi Laitinen, the leader of the Early Nutrition and Health research group at the University of Turku, says that a comprehensive and healthy pregnancy diet would remarkably benefit child neurodevelopment. This is especially true for mothers at increased risk of developing gestational diabetes due to obesity or being overweight.

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