An assessment of features of prenatal maternal diet that are important for subsequent child development

Assessment of prenatal maternal diet on behavioural and cognitive development of the child, adolescent and young adult, particularly in regard to neurocognitive development.

CACH Team: Steven Gregory, Yasmin Iles-Caven, Jean Golding

Maternal diet is known to affect fetal development leading to changes in behaviour and cognitive development. This project uses the maternal diet in pregnancy, as recorded in the ALSPAC project, linked to various cognitive and psychological outcomes of the study child/adolescent, to assess features of the prenatal diet that are most important for the child’s development. Studies have determined (i) benefits of eating fish in spite of possible risks from pollutants in fish; (ii) determining whether a diet deficient in vitamin B12 has any adverse effects on child development; (iii) the effects of genetic components responsible for metabolising the diet, particularly regarding fatty acids, on child development, (iv) assessing the consequences of vegetarianism.