by Brock University

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All soon-to-be-parents want to give their baby the healthiest start possible, but new Brock University-led research shows that eating well and being physically active during pregnancy also benefits children years after birth.

Toddlers whose mothers had a nutritious diet and exercise intervention program during pregnancy show a greater ability to regulate their emotions than those whose mothers had standard prenatal care alone, researchers found.

"We were really excited about the findings," says Brock Assistant Professor of Health Sciences John Krzeczkowski, who headed up the research team that included psychiatrist and Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences Ryan Van Lieshout and Professor of Pediatrics Stephanie Atkinson, both from McMaster University.

"The fact that we saw emotion regulation benefits in children in the intervention group highlights the potential that optimizing prenatal diet and exercise may have in reducing risk for later mental disorders in children," he says.

The study, published last month in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, involved 50 women between 12- and 17-weeks' gestation and divided them into two groups.

Participants in the intervention group were given a high-protein diet including foods such as low-fat Greek yogurt, cottage cheese and low-fat milk, along with personalized nutrition counseling sessions.

They also participated in a walking program three to four times a week, working up to 40 minutes per walk towards the end of pregnancy.

The second group of pregnant women received regular pregnancy care alone.

After almost two years, the researchers assessed the toddlers' emotional regulation in tasks designed to examine impulsivity and attentional control.

In the first task, the child sat at a table with an attractive toy. They were told to keep their hands on the table and not reach for the toy until they heard a bell, with the time between bell rings increasing. This measured the child's ability to delay gratification.

In the second activity, researchers gave the child a different toy and recorded how long the child played with that toy. When the child stopped playing, the researchers repeated the process twice more to determine how well and long they pay attention.

In addition to these lab activities, both mothers and their partners filled out two questionnaires: the Child Behavior Checklist, used to assess symptoms of emotional and behavioral problems in children, and the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function-Preschool Version, which measures skills and processes involving memory, flexible thinking and controlling inhibitions.

Researchers found that compared to toddlers whose mothers received regular prenatal care, toddlers whose mothers were in the intervention group:

• Had significantly lower problems with self-control, mental flexibility and executive functioning.

• Had fewer symptoms of behavioral and emotional problems.

• Showed a longer attention span.

• Exhibited less impulsive behavior.

"Our study was the only prenatal diet-plus-exercise intervention that provided whole foods to participants," says Krzeczkowski. "Providing foods to participants gives us clues into how future interventions may address food disparities in equity deserving populations and benefit both the health of pregnant people as well as their child's brain."

While a healthy diet in pregnancy gives children a strong start, young children's brains remain "plastic and changeable," he says, and can "catch up" through nutritious foods and activities that develop the brain.

Krzeczkowski says the next step is to broaden the research to include participants from lower socio-economic backgrounds and different ethnic groups as the current study focused on largely middle-class participants of European descent.

"The fact that we saw benefits in toddlers motivates us to begin the next steps of this research, which will involve engaging pregnant people in the research process in order to best expand these types of programs to larger, more diverse populations," he says.

More information: John E Krzeczkowski et al, Adaptive changes in multiple aspects of emotion regulation in the offspring of pregnant persons receiving a diet-and-exercise intervention relative to usual pregnancy care: a randomized controlled trial, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.ajcnut.2024.10.022

Journal information: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 

Provided by Brock University