If you're eating for two, then you already know that your baby is getting the benefits of whatever vitamins and nutrition your diet brings in (and that eating unhealthy food could change your baby's DNA). But a new study from Emory University links another pre-pregnancy supplement with newborn health: Researchers found that mothers who took fish oil helped their infants fight off colds.
CNN.com's The Chart reports on the study, which found that newborns whose mothers took DHA -- docosahexaenoic acid, found in fish oil capsules -- while they were in the womb "had fewer days with cold symptoms during their first six months of life than infants whose mothers recieved a placebo." Still, the study's authors warn that the 800-woman study is too small to draw any definite conclusions.
"Recommending women to take a dose of up to 400 milligrams of DHA during pregnancy would be safe, but how much of a benefit there is we don't know yet," says Usha Ramakrishnan, Ph.D., the study's lead author.
Did you take supplements during your pregnancy?
More from The Chart on CNN.com.
CNN.com's The Chart reports on the study, which found that newborns whose mothers took DHA -- docosahexaenoic acid, found in fish oil capsules -- while they were in the womb "had fewer days with cold symptoms during their first six months of life than infants whose mothers recieved a placebo." Still, the study's authors warn that the 800-woman study is too small to draw any definite conclusions.
"Recommending women to take a dose of up to 400 milligrams of DHA during pregnancy would be safe, but how much of a benefit there is we don't know yet," says Usha Ramakrishnan, Ph.D., the study's lead author.
Did you take supplements during your pregnancy?
More from The Chart on CNN.com.