Archives of Disease in Childhood recently published a study which proves that fish oil supplements given to pregnant women improved the hand-eye coordination of toddlers.

The trial was done on 98 women who were put on 4 g of fish oil/olive oil supplements from 20th week of their pregnancy till the birth of their child.

Only non-smokers and those who did not routinely eat more than two weekly portions of fish were included in the study. Eighty three mothers completed the study.

Once the children had reached two and a half years of age, they were assessed using validated tests to measure growth and development.

These included tests of language, behavior, practical reasoning and hand-eye coordination. In all, 72 children were assessed (33 in the fish oil group and 39 in the olive oil group).

There were no significant overall differences in language skills and growth between the two groups of children.

But those whose mothers had taken fish oil supplements scored more highly on measures of receptive language (comprehension), average phrase length, and vocabulary.

And children whose mothers had taken fish oil supplements scored significantly higher in hand-eye coordination than those whose mothers had taken the olive oil supplements.

This finding held true even after taking into account other potentially influential factors, such as the mother's age and duration of breast feeding.

High cord blood levels of omega 3 fatty acids at birth (from fish oil) were strongly associated with good hand-eye coordination, while low levels of omega 6 fatty acids, found in many vegetable oils, were not.