Seafood IS brainfood

Yet another source verifies that women should NOT skip eating seafood while pregnant. The Lancet printed a study of data collected in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). The study was designed to see if seafood consumption during pregnancy affected children's neuorlogical development, including their scores on behavioral and intelligence testing. The results speak for themsleves:

"After adjustment, maternal seafood intake during pregnancy of less than 340 g per week was associated with increased risk of their children being in the lowest quartile for verbal intelligence quotient (IQ) (no seafood consumption, odds ratio [OR] 1·48, 95% CI 1·16–1·90; some, 1·09, 0·92–1·29; overall trend, p=0·004), compared with mothers who consumed more than 340 g per week. Low maternal seafood intake was also associated with increased risk of suboptimum outcomes for prosocial behaviour, fine motor, communication, and social development scores. For each outcome measure, the lower the intake of seafood during pregnancy, the higher the risk of suboptimum developmental outcome."

In other words, children born to moms with the lowest seafood consumption during pregnancy had the worst outcomes in all areas: behavioral, intelligence, motor skills, everything. The authors of the study come to a similar conclusion as an earlier study by the Harvard School of Public Health, saying that warnings against fish intake for pregnant women do more harm than good.

I love it when the scientific evidence agrees with my opinion and my palate, and we are encouraged to eat something healthy and delicious rather than told it's scary. I hate it when women are given conflicting information, and I am sure there are women who avoided seafood while they were pregnant thinking they were doing best by their children-to-be, and now feel frustrated and guilty about one more thing.

I am sure there will still be many articles and websites that still mistakenly warn pregnant women to stay away from seafood. (Just like articles on weight loss that say to limit nuts. *twitch twitch*) Here's to hoping some of these women do some fact checking of their own.

Is the ultrasound why Johnny can't read?

It may be too late for my kids, since I had the
standard ultrasounds with both of them. One for dating early in the pregnancy, and one for checking the placenta placement and to identify the sex of the baby later. Actually, I starting to question the necessity or safety of repeated ultrasounds during pregnancy and wasn’t going to get the second sonogram during my pregnancy with Z, but an apparent gallbladder attack with severe pain and vomiting sent me to the radiologist just in time to find out about his penis-to-be.

Well, more research shows, although in mice, that ultrasound exposure may interfere with the normal neurological development of the fetal brain. The correlation in the study was strong enough to make me reach for my tinfoil hat.

My last pregnancy was right before the 3-D (or 4-D) ultrasound craze. And before Tom and Katie and their copycats got the ultimante accessory: a home ultrasound machine. Some moms-to-be get many ultrasounds, and many practitioners use their machines more often than is probably "medically necessary", which is a subjective term.