Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Pregnant women who eat fish are doing their children a favor, a new study shows. In the latest of sometimes conflicting messages about prenatal fish consumption, researchers found that the more fish a woman eats, the better her infant's physical and cognitive abilities are.

Infants whose mothers ate fish were able to sit, talk and walk sooner than infants whose mothers didn't eat fish.

"This provides a lot of reassurance for pregnant women who want to eat fish," said Emily Oken, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and the lead author of the study, published in the September issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Overall, children whose mothers ate the most fish were 25 percent more likely to have higher developmental scores at 6 months and 30 percent more likely to have higher scores at 18 months than children whose mothers ate the least fish.

In the past, women have been cautioned about fish consumption because fish contains mercury, which is toxic.

Shark, swordfish, king mackerel and tilefish should be avoided by pregnant women because of high mercury levels, according to a 2004 advisory by the Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency. The advisory also states that pregnant women can safely eat up to 12 ounces of fish a week.

The Environmental Protection Agency offers more information about eating fish at http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/fish.

-- Sindya Bhanoo