DHA Fish Oil - How To Boost Your Child's Brain And Visual Development

The brain of a fetus grows extremely fast during the first trimester. Many of the building blocks of a healthy mind and body are built at this early stage. Two areas in which fish oil capsules have been scientifically proven to boost infant and child performance are cognitive and visual development.

The polyunsaturated fatty acids known as EPA and DHA are required for the development of both the human brain and the visual system.

Australian scientists have found that supplementation with DHA/EPA capsules can improve the development of both of these systems effectively. They found that supplementing the diet of children with a quality omega-3 supplement made from fish improved both their mental processing and attention span. It also improved visual skills. When the children reached 2.5 years of age, the ones who were taking fish oil supplements had better scores on motor and visual coordination skills than the children who were not taking supplements.

Now, researchers from Vancouver, Canada, have reported that infants whose breast-feeding mothers were given DHA supplementation had a visual acuity superior to infants born of mothers who had not been given the supplement. In fact, the babies whose mothers did not receive supplemental DHA were three times more likely to have visual problems! This is clearly indicative of a DHA deficiency.

To me, as a longtime health researcher, these findings do not come as a surprise. I believe that if something is the way that it is in nature, then nature intended it to be that way for a reason. I think it's obvious that in this case nature intended for mothers to eat a diet high in fish while pregnant and to feed their babies a diet high in DHA after childbirth, through breast-feeding and eventually through a post-lactation diet, thereby giving their offspring the best chance of becoming strong and healthy.

I believe that in our time, with all the pollution in our waterways, that the best way to ensure that both we and our children are getting the optimal levels of fish oil is by using a clean, pure, concentrated fish oil and taking between 650mg-1000mg of EPA/DHA per day. The Canadian ministry of health has recently endorsed an optimal level of between 1000mg and 1800mg. I can't think of a better investment in one's health than that!