ABSTRACT
Folic acid is one of the essential nutrients for human health. Folic acid supplementation during pregnancy is important to prevent fetal neural tube defects. This article briefly reviews its current clinical use from the basic characteristics and mechanism of folic acid, and also reviews the latest literature of fetal, neonatal and children. The terms such as "fetus", "newborn", "folate", "infant, newborn" [Mesh], and "folic acid" [Mesh] are used to search for relevant research from China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang, PubMed and The Cochrane Library. Summary of domestic and foreign studies: folic acid may be associated with fetal neural tube defects, the relationship between folic acid and fetal birth defects, fetal growth restriction and perinatal mortality remains to be further studied; in addition, folic acid is associated with neonatal asphyxia and brain injury; may be associated with childhood asthma, mental retardation and immunity. It can be seen that although the correlation between folic acid and various diseases still needs more scientific research, it is recommended that periconception and pregnant should reasonably supplement folic acid.