<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."