<A HREF="http://www.foxnews.com/health/030600/bmilk.sml">Report: Nutrients
Like Those in Breast Milk Appear to Make Baby Smarter</A>
Report: Nutrients Like Those
In Breast Milk Appear to Make Baby Smarter
4:55 p.m. ET (2155 GMT) March 6, 2000 By Paul Recer
WASHINGTON — Enriching bottle formula with two essential fatty acids found in
mother's milk can cause a significant improvement in the mental development
of babies, a new study says.
The supplemented formula does not assure intellectual genius, said
researchers at the Retina Foundation of the Southwest in Dallas, but the
study does show that adding the fatty acids to bottled formula can closely
mimic the effect of mother's milk on brain development.
Experts said the study, published in the journal Developmental Medicine and
Child Neurology, is important because it is the first to compare formula
supplemented with the fatty acids with formula without the additions. Earlier
studies compared straight formula with mother's milk.
The study adds to growing international support for adding to commercial baby
formula two fatty acids, docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and arachidonic acid
(AA), that are in breast milk.
More than 60 countries have approved supplementing formula with the DHA and
AA. Officials at the Food and Drug Administration said the issue is under
review and new regulations for U.S. formula makers may be issued within eight
months.
In the study, researchers divided 56 newborns into three groups and fed them
different formula for four months.
A control group received a commercial formula with no addition. One test
group got formula supplemented with DHA, while the third group got both DHA
and AA. At the end of four months, all three groups began receiving only
commercial formula.
At age 18 months, the children were tested on the Bayley Scales of Infant
Development, a standard test used to gauge physical and mental progress of
infants. A score of 100 is considered the national average for mental
development.
Eileen E. Birch, first author of the study, said infants receiving the double
supplement, both DHA and AA, scored 105.6 on the mental development index of
the Bayley Scales.
Birch said this is virtually identical to the 106 score of a separate group
of babies, in another study, who were breast fed only.
For the control group of infants, who received commercial formula, the
average score was 98. This is within the statistical range of normal, but
seven points below the average for the test group.
For the group that received formula supplemented only with DHA, said Birch,
the score was about 102, a statistically insignificant difference from
normal.
Birch said that although the infants on supplemented formula scored
significantly higher than the control group, the study does not prove that
there will be a similar IQ difference when the children are older.
"The test is not a perfect predictor of school age intelligence," said Birch.
"It does provide a good profile of mental development at the early stage."
Children in the study will be tested again at age 4 and 9 to determine if the
enhanced early brain development translates into higher IQs among school-age
children, she said.
Birch said she thought the FDA was being "appropriately cautious" in its
evaluation of the DHA and AA supplemented formula.
"There are still some important questions to be answered" regarding the
long-term effect of artificially supplementing formula with the fatty acids,
she said.
"There is always caution when you are adding something to baby formula," said
Christine Lewis, director of the FDA's office of nutritional products. "We
are reviewing it actively, but this is a serious issue."
Barbara Levine, a nutritional researcher at Rockefeller University in New
York, said the Birch study "is a great, giant step" because it was a direct
comparison of supplemented and straight formula.
Levine said there were many studies showing the superiority of breast milk
for infants and that the goal has been to fortify formula "so that it is like
breast milk."
More research on DHA and AA are appropriate, said Levine, but use of the two
fatty acids in baby formula "is very, very promising."
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