Doctors may have found a new way to help prevent babies from catching the cold.
As a parent, it can be heartbreaking to watch your baby sneeze and sniffle his way through a cold. There's just not much you can do to help. However, a new study from Emory University found young babies had fewer colds that didn't last as long when their mothers took DHA supplements while pregnant.
"Consuming 400 milligrams of DHA, which is an omega 3 fatty acid, during pregnancy reduced cold symptoms in the first month of life," Dr. Usha Ramakrishnan from Emory University stated. The duration of colds was shortened by about a day for babies up to 6 months old.
DHA is also found in cold water fish like salmon, but researchers are convinced the beneficial effects of DHA they found were not because of fish intake. “The consumption of fish and overall intakes of omega 3 fatty acids was extremely low," Dr. Ramakrishnan said.
Many prenatal vitamins have DHA, but the amount varies in each product. Researchers say as much as 400-milligrams appears to be safe. Experts say this was a solid study. "The women did not know whether they'd consumed DHA or not... and neither did the researchers when they analyzed the data,” Dr. Ramakrishnan reported.
Medical experts will continue to study the kids to see how long this effect might last.
Story Author: Erika Edwards, NBC News.
