ABSTRACT
Pregnant women at risk of malnutrition were enrolled in a health care programme in Colombia, South America, and were randomly assigned to a group receiving supplementary food or to a control group at the beginning of the third trimester of pregnancy. There were no differences between the groups in social or nutritional variables. Supplementary food was found to have an effect on infants' reactions to mild aversive stimulation and their degree of irritability. Infants born to non-supplemented mothers generally responded more irritably to removal of a nipple and to the application of a cold disc to the abdomen. Female infants of non-supplemented mothers also recovered more slowly than the supplemented group from crying in response to both removal of nipple and the cold disc. The findings are believed to show a maturational effect of maternal diet during the last trimester of pregnancy.
Subject(s)
Child Behavior , Infant, Newborn , Nutrition Disorders/diet therapy , Pregnancy Complications/diet therapy , Colombia , Crying , Dietary Proteins/therapeutic use , Female , Humans , Longitudinal Studies , Male , Physical Stimulation , Pregnancy , Pregnancy Trimester, Third , Reaction Time , Risk , Sex Factors , Sucking BehaviorABSTRACT
Colombian women at risk of mild-to-moderate malnutrition were enrolled in a health care program and randomly assigned into nutritional supplementation and control groups at the beginning of the third trimester of preganancy. One hundred unsupplemented and 144 supplemented infants were tested at 15 days of age: a 2X2 checkerboard was presented eight times followed by a single presentation of a 6X6 checkerboard. Unsupplemented infants showed less initial attention followed by slower habituation and higher levels of movement than the supplemented infants. The observed effect of maternal nutritional supplementation during the last trimester of pregnancy on new-born attention was interpreted to be maturational in nature.