Recently in Personal Experience Category

Our baby boy is now about 16 months old and everything seems to be going well.  Of course - its impossible to determine what the relative impact of the possible prenatal supplements have had on our son (my wife took about 2 grams/day of DHA omega 3's, in addition to the 3.5 grams of Choline supplements -- plus many others - like extra Iron, Iodine, vitamin C, Vitamin D, etc. - per day during the second half of her pregnancy)  - but the impact so far seems to have been quite significantly positive.

Our son started walking at the same time - at about 8 months - but he was only taking 3 to 5 steps before he'd fall down and we have a hardwood floor in our house so we didn't encourage these  explorations alone. 

By 9.5 months he was walking across the room alone on a regular basis - and we let him explore alone even more when we were visiting family and friends during summer vacation and with carpeted floor everywhere there was less concern about him face-planting on the wood floor.  After the carpeted floor experience, he never looked back. 

He started saying his first words at around 11 months - and now at 16 months has a vocabulary of about 80 or 90 words and its increasing very quickly.  It really does seem to me that his memory is significantly better than expected.  Most kids his age are talking with only 5 to 10 words says our pediatrician.

So far - the choline supplement effort during pregnancy seems to be paying off.

Tune in next month - and I'll try to post more frequent updates. 

One of the goals of this site is to document people's experiences with prenatal choline supplementation during pregnancy - and the results of such supplementation (good and bad). I'd like to cover the past experiences (where people have done it with pregnancies that have already been completed - with reports on how the children are doing), as well as where people are just starting their pregnancy. 

In my search for information on choline on the web, I came across this example of a person who had supplemented his and his wife's diet with methyl donor vitamins (choline, and B vitamins).

"Q: Before my wife and I had our child, I read a few studies on epigenetics, concentrating on studies dealing with dietary methyl donors. (Vitamins B6, B12, and Choline are very high methyl donors). We both took supplements before trying to get pregnant, and we both continued to take them while pregnant. When my daughter was born, she came out with blond hair and blue eyes, nothing like ours. All of her teachers have said that she learns extremely quickly compared to others and has a fantastic memory. Could our consuming simple nutrients have provided such physical and intellectual attributes?

Britt E., Little Rock, Arkansas

A: Choline supplementation during pregnancy in rats increases learning ability, enhances synaptic function, and offers protection from neurotoxicity (Li, Q., J. Neurophysiol. 91: 1545-1555, 2004). These effects of choline on neurological function most likely involve altered gene expression and associated changes in nerve cell growth and differentiation mediated by epigenetic changes, such as DNA methylation. Although the animal data on choline and hippocampal development are compelling, studies are needed to determine whether choline supplementation during pregnancy has the same effect in humans.

(For review see: The fetal origins of memory: the role of dietary choline in optimal brain development Zeisel, S.H., J. Pediatr. 149 [Suppl. 5]: S131-5136, 2006.) It is unknown if food supplements or epigenetic drug therapy in adulthood can reverse an epigenetically regulated negative effect on neural function in humans.
 

Source: PBS Nova Program