Supporting Neurodevelopment

This Centre for Research Excellence is working across a range of projects to improve nutritional health outcomes for both mother and child.

It consists of four Themes:

• Improving outcomes for mothers and children before and after birth by examining the best nutritional practice during this time.
• Looking at how Omega 3 might be optimised to prevent premature births.
• Improving outcomes for premature babies, with a particular focus on human milk.
• Novel technologies to assess nutritional status.

The CRE in Targeted Nutrition to Improve Maternal and Child Health Outcomes will respond to the nutritional dichotomy that is facing our perinatal population - nutritional deficiencies that are more common in lower income groups and over-consumption of nutritional supplements that is more prevalent in higher income groups.

Plans are in place to address each of the issue raised in the above themes:

• Best nutrition practice to improve perinatal outcomes - examining ways to improve the implementation of current evidence-based knowledge for women and young children.
• Optimising fatty acids to prevent prematurity - addressing the most promising primary prevention strategy to reduce the risk of preterm birth through omega-3 long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids.
• Improving the nutritional outcomes of preterm infants - improving understanding of nutritional requirements at different gestational ages with a special focus on human milk.
• Novel tools for targeted nutrition - interconnecting and enabling the other three Themes by developing dried blood spot tests that can specifically assess nutritional markers that are sensitive to dietary change.

This project was led by Professor Maria Makrides and funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council.

Giving omega-3 DHA to babies who are born 3-to-4 months prematurely has been thought to help their brain development.

Preterm children are more likely to have lower IQ scores, cognitive impairments, and behavioural problems compared with term-born children. Infants born at the earliest gestations are deprived of the natural supply of the omega-3 fatty acid known as docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) that normally builds up in the brain during the last trimester of pregnancy.

In this study, the team investigated the effects of restoring the supply of DHA to these infants in the first months of life. The N3RO Trial followed infants born before 29 weeks gestation, who were given 60mg of DHA/kg per day via enteral or control tube feeding. They were compared with children in the control group, who received an emulsion with no DHA. At five years old, children in both groups underwent the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI) IQ test and parents completed a survey about their behaviour and health.

On average, those in the DHA group scored 3.5 points higher on the IQ scale than those in the control group. These very promising results suggest DHA has the potential to improve cognitive performance when administered via emulsion for infants born before 29 weeks gestation.

This project was led by Associate Professor Jacqueline Gould and funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council.

What a child is fed during the first two years of life is critical to ensure their optimal growth, health, and development to reach their full potential.

Sub optimal feeding practices during this period have long-term health consequences that persist into adulthood. The 2021 Australian Feeding Infants and Toddlers Study (OzFITS) was designed to collect national data on what young children are being fed. OzFITS was a cross-sectional survey of over 1100 parents of children under two years of age throughout Australia.

In this study, we sought to find out what children under two years of age are eating and drinking. Our study also aimed to find out how today’s diets and feeding practices compare to Australian dietary guidelines.

This study is now complete and found the following:

Results

• We found high breastfeeding rates, with over 40% of toddlers still breastfeeding. Most infants started solid foods at around 6 months, which is in line with recommendations.
• Of concern, 9 out of 10 toddlers consumed discretionary foods. Discretionary foods are calorie dense but low in nutrition. Some examples include sweet biscuits, processed meats, confectionary, and potato chips. Because young children have high nutrient and low energy requirements, it is recommended that discretionary foods are not included in their diets.
• Less than 1/3 of toddlers consumed the recommended serving of cereals and grains.
• The amount of meats and alternatives eaten by the children in our study was below the recommended intake. We also found that over 90% of infants aged 6-12 months and 25% of toddlers did not consume enough iron.
• Two out of three toddlers did not eat the minimum recommended serving of vegetables.

Recommendations

• Offer less milk and breastmilk as your baby older and eats more food.
• Iron is an important nutrient for growth and brain development. Include an iron-rich food at each meal such as red meat, iron-fortified cereals, legumes, or leafy green vegetables.
• Eat some fruit (not too much).
• Teach your young child to eat more vegetables they can be offered as meals or snacks.
• Offer healthy snack foods.
• Offer family foods from the five food groups, consistent with the Australian Dietary Guidelines.

This project was led by Professor Maria Makrides and funded by the Nestle Nutrition Institute.