ReviewMaternal & child nutrition2011
Essential fats: how do they affect growth and development of infants and young children in developing countries? A literature review.
Review in Maternal & child nutrition, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 53 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
53 citing papers in PubMed, 155 citations in OpenAlex.
- Infant Metabolome in Relation to Prenatal DHA Supplementation and Maternal Single-Nucleotide Polymorphism rs174602: Secondary Analysis of a Randomized Controlled Trial in Mexico.The Journal of nutrition · 2021Trial
- Trial
- Trial
- Eggs early in complementary feeding increase choline pathway biomarkers and DHA: a randomized controlled trial in Ecuador.The American journal of clinical nutrition · 2017Trial
- Prenatal supplementation with DHA improves attention at 5 y of age: a randomized controlled trial.The American journal of clinical nutrition · 2016Trial
- Provision of lipid-based nutrient supplements to Honduran children increases their dietary macro- and micronutrient intake without displacing other foods.Maternal & child nutrition · 2015Trial
- Prenatal Docosahexaenoic Acid Supplementation and Offspring Development at 18 Months: Randomized Controlled Trial.PloS one · 2015Trial
- The effect of adding ready-to-use supplementary food to a general food distribution on child nutritional status and morbidity: a cluster-randomized controlled trial.PLoS medicine · 2012Trial
- Dietary fish oil improves intestinal barrier function and intestinal microbiota composition and reduces systemic inflammation in a mouse model of moderate acute malnutrition.Journal of nutritional science · 2026Article
- Systems biology insights into the molecular drivers of childhood stunting and implications for intervention.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Review
- The use of linear programming approach in diet optimization among children under five: a scoping review.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Annual Research Review: Micronutrients and their role in the treatment of paediatric mental illness.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2025Review
- Randomized prenatal and postnatal nutrient supplementation shows no long-term impact on cortical gray matter in Ghanaian children.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2025Article
- Article
- Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids and Human Health: A Key to Modern Nutritional Balance in Association with Polyphenolic Compounds from Food Sources.Foods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Effect of fortifying sorghum and wheat with Longhorn grasshopper (Food science & nutrition · 2024Article
- Article
- Sex-Specific Perturbation of Systemic Lipidomic Profile in Newborn Lambs Impacted by Prenatal Testosterone Excess.Endocrinology · 2023Article
- Higher Dietary Intake of Animal Protein Foods in Pregnancy Is Associated with Lower Risk of Adverse Birth Outcomes.The Journal of nutrition · 2022Article
- Estimated energy and nutrient intake for infants following baby-led and traditional weaning approaches.Journal of human nutrition and dietetics : the official journal of the British Dietetic Association · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, particularly docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), are known to play an essential role in the development of the brain and retina. Intakes in pregnancy and early life affect growth and cognitive performance later in childhood. However, total fat intake, alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) and DHA intakes are often low among pregnant and lactating women, infants and young children in developing countries. As breast milk is one of the best sources of ALA and DHA, breastfed infants are less likely to be at risk of insufficient intakes than those not breastfed. Enhancing intake of ALA through plant food products (soy beans and oil, canola oil, and foods containing these products such as lipid-based nutrient supplements) has been shown to be feasible. However, because of the low conversion rates of ALA to DHA, it may be more efficient to increase DHA status through increasing fish consumption or DHA fortification, but these approaches may be more costly. In addition, breastfeeding up to 2 years and beyond is recommended to ensure an adequate essential fat intake in early life. Data from developing countries have shown that a higher omega-3 fatty acid intake or supplementation during pregnancy may result in small improvements in birthweight, length and gestational age based on two randomized controlled trials and one cross-sectional study. More rigorous randomized controlled trials are needed to confirm this effect. Limited data from developing countries suggest that ALA or DHA supplementation during lactation and in infants may be beneficial for growth and development of young children 6-24 months of age in these settings. These benefits are more pronounced in undernourished children. However, there is no evidence for improvements in growth following omega-3 fatty acid supplementation in children >2 years of age.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.