We've been having great luck with getting our second child to eat the 1 gram+ per day of choline (in the form of Lecithin granules) added to pancake mix, on a near daily basis.  So I'd really recommend people try this approach if they are having problems in this area (which we did for a long time). 

I buy whole wheat pancake mix from Trader Joes, add crushed walnuts, and miscellaneous other things I find around the kitchen (extra egg yolks, oat bran, flax, chia seeds, etc.) and a large amount of choline - that works out to about a gram of choline per pancake.  I also add a lot of cinnamon powder, and vanilla extract - and you can hardly taste the choline when the pancakes are finished.  Add a little low-sugar jam, etc. - and the kids love them.

Our second child is doing well, and recently passed the 24 month/ 2-year milestone.  She is very conversationally fluent - I haven't counted the words - but perhaps in the range of 500 to 1,000 words in English, and perhaps half that in Chinese/Mandarin.  She counts to 10 without a problem, and knows the alphabet (to say it, but not to identify the letters, which we haven't worked on at all.

Friends have commented both on the advanced verbal skills (talks a lot, in sentences), and on the advanced motor skills (runs, climbs and moves quickly and accurately) of our second child.  Choline seems to be working well, and we are following an ongoing diet of 1 gram per day for children.

Its great to see that some of the more popular news publications is finally starting to cover choline as an extremely important nutrient during pregnancy.  Here is a recent story from US News and World Report:

" There are rock-star nutrients in the pregnancy world that tend to receive all the attention. Folic acid, iron, and calcium are covered extensively in pregnancy magazines, and they're easily part of the mom-to-be vernacular. Choline--a water-soluble nutrient in the B vitamin family--on the other hand, remains largely unknown for many pregnant moms. But based on recent research, it deserves to be elevated to rock-star nutrient status.

One reason choline is difficult to study is that it's related to brain development, and linking low choline in pregnancy to a lower IQ or a higher rate of depression later in life is tough to measure. How do you measure IQ potential? How do you know if depression could have been avoided, had the child received more of a particular nutrient during early brain development?"

The problem is that they are still getting the story wrong in the details.  In this particular story the writer warns:

"As with anything in life, too much of a good thing is no longer a good thing--it is possible to get too much choline, mainly from overdoing it with supplements. Choline toxicity can lead to a fishy body odor, vomiting, and decreased blood pressure."

This woman has done a little research - but misses out important details and on the big point.  The tolerable upper intake level recommended for pregnant women from 10 years ago was 3.5 grams of choline per day  - and there are no identified side effects for that level for either Lecithin-based choline or choline bitartrate. New studies are using 6 grams per day so that level is obviously also safe.   The "fishy odor" is specific to choline chloride - which nobody in their right mind is going to take, because it tastes terrible (I tried it). 

Here is a good reference if you're concerned about the side effects or safety of higher levels of choline during pregnancy:

http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/infocenter/othernuts/choline/index.html#safety

Anyway - the full article is here, but its still far from conveying the real benefits of choline at the higher levels of 3.5 to 6 grams per day.

Pregnant? Get Your Choline!

http://health.usnews.com/health-news/blogs/eat-run/2012/08/31/pregnant-get-your-choline

Just got the following questions from a woman considering high choline supplementation - here are her questions and my responses:

"I'm about to start choline diet since we'd like to try for a second child but I'd like to ask you a few questions.

I've read pretty much all the articles on your website and came up with the below questions:

1.Is obtaining lecithin from SOY better than non-soy sources? If I supplement with sunflower lecithin for example, would I get the same result based on your research? There are some sunflower lecithin products on the market and I'd really like to try it over soy-lecithin if it works the same."

2.Does the choline intake of 3.5 gr for pregnant women and 1 gr for kids needs to be ON A DAILY basis or can we just take a few times a week?

3. I was reading your answer to one of the readers question and u were saying that Choline bitrate hasn't been studied much and thus doesnt show the same result from Lecithin or it is not same as other type of choline. But on the other hand, u also mentioned that u did take 50% of choline bitrate and 50% of lecithin during ur 2. pregnancy.I just dont understing why would follow this protocol if u think choline bitrate does not work same as Lecithin. I would appreciate if you clarify that part for me.

New research suggests that choline supplementation in pregnant women lowers cortisol in the baby by changing epigenetic expression of genes involved in cortisol production.

If you're sick from stress, a new research report appearing in the August 2012 issue of The FASEB Journal suggests that what your mother ate -- or didn't eat -- may be part of the cause. The report shows that choline intake that is higher than what is generally recommended during pregnancy may improve how a child responds to stress. These improvements are the result of epigenetic changes that ultimately lead to lower cortisol levels. Epigenetic changes affect how a gene functions, even if the gene itself is not changed. Lowering cortisol is important as high levels of cortisol are linked to a wide range of problems ranging from mental health to metabolic and cardiovascular disorders.

"We hope that our data will inform the development of choline intake recommendations for pregnant women that ensure optimal fetal development and reduce the risk of stress-related diseases throughout the life of the child," said Marie A. Caudill, Ph.D., a researcher involved in the work from the Division of Nutritional Sciences and Genomics at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

To make this discovery, Caudill and colleagues conducted a 12-week study involving pregnant women in their third trimester who consumed either the control diet providing 480 mg choline per day, a level that approximates current dietary recommendations, or the treatment diet which provided 930 mg choline per day. Maternal blood, cord blood and placenta tissue were collected to measure the blood levels of cortisol, the expression levels of genes that regulate cortisol, and the number of methyl groups attached to the DNA of the cortisol regulating genes (the epigenetic changes). Those from mothers who consumed the higher levels of choline showed reduced levels of cortisol.

"Depending on the relationship, one's mother can either produce stress or relieve it," said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal. "This report shows that her effect on stress begins even before birth. The importance of choline cannot be overstated as we continue to unravel the role it plays in human health and development."

An interesting news article on CBS News - it seems that the world is slowly starting to wake up to the opportunities here: