{"id":894582,"date":"2026-10-25T22:16:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T22:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/894582\/"},"modified":"2026-10-25T22:16:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T22:16:10","slug":"a-surprising-supplement-may-give-babies-an-iq-boost-and-social-skills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/894582\/","title":{"rendered":"A surprising supplement may give babies an IQ boost and social skills"},"content":{"rendered":"

This supplement is certainly a baby boost.<\/p>\n

While prenatal vitamins<\/a> aren\u2019t a replacement for a balanced diet for expecting mothers, they can fill potential nutritional gaps and provide additional benefits.<\/p>\n

A nutritional supplement found in a common food could support fetal brain development, improving social behavior and cognitive performance in kids, even scoring higher on IQ tests, according to new research<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pregnant women who took the nutritional supplement found in several foods saw an 8-Point IQ jump in kids by age 4. Prostock-studio \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

Found in everyday foods like chicken, eggs, beef and fish, choline<\/a> plays a role in memory, mood, inflammation and cell health.<\/p>\n

A new clinical trial from the University of Colorado found that children of mothers who received phosphatidylcholine supplements \u2014 a form of choline \u2014 had fewer problems with language development and social skills.<\/p>\n

The kids of mothers who took the choline-based supplement had fewer social withdrawal behaviors, including some often seen in Autism Spectrum Disorder.<\/p>\n

Four-year-olds of mothers who took high doses scored about 8 points higher on an IQ-style test than those who took a placebo, with many also testing in a range used for gifted program placement.<\/p>\n

In the largest randomized clinical trial of prenatal choline supplementation ever conducted, researchers looked at more than 200 pregnant women who took 9,000 milligrams of phosphatidylcholine.<\/p>\n

The rest of the participants took a placebo, and both groups took their supplements from 16 weeks of pregnancy until delivery.<\/p>\n

Neither the women nor the researchers knew who received which one until the end of the study.<\/p>\n

The kids of women who took phosphatidylcholine supplements, a form of choline, saw cognitive and social skill benefits. luchschenF \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

The children\u2019s behavior was then assessed starting at 18 months and up to 4 years of age, with cognitive performance measured at ages 3 and 4.<\/p>\n

By the time the children were four, only 4% in the supplement group showed multiple or lasting social withdrawal problems, compared to 24% of children whose mothers took the placebo.<\/p>\n

Social withdrawal behaviors included limited interest in other people, withdrawing from social activities and reduced eye contact.<\/p>\n

While choline is found in foods like chicken, beef and eggs, it\u2019s difficult get enough of the nutrient in a normal diet. Prostock-studio \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

The researchers also noted significantly fewer children in the supplement group with behavioral profiles and language difficulties often associated with autism.<\/p>\n

However, attention problems didn\u2019t show any notable improvements. Meanwhile, around one-third of participants dropped out before the final assessments.<\/p>\n

Still, the study authors write that the findings show \u201csafe, effective support of fetal brain development\u201d from choline supplementation.<\/p>\n

The results could impact how doctors discuss the prenatal supplements with pregnant patients who may be curious about over-the-counter options.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis study provides additional evidence that choline supplements during pregnancy can have lasting effects on children\u2019s brain development,\u201d senior author Robert Freedman said in a press release<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Choline works for brain development by activating a receptor made by the CHRNA7 gene in developing nerve cells that helps them create the machinery to receive signals from other nerve cells before birth.<\/p>\n

Many mothers, though, \u201cdon\u2019t get enough choline in their diets to fully give the baby all that it needs to complete the activation of its neurons,\u201d according to Freedman.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also nearly impossible to get enough choline in a normal diet to fully activate the CHRNA7 receptor, making supplementation necessary.<\/p>\n

The researchers also believe the dosage in the study was a bit higher than needed, recommending 7,200 mg of phosphatidylcholine or 900 mg of choline itself, instead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This supplement is certainly a baby boost. While prenatal vitamins aren\u2019t a replacement for a balanced diet for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":894583,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[4528,1490,6729,1491,97,35199,11282,3284,582],"class_list":["post-894582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-womens-health","tag-autism","tag-babies","tag-brains","tag-health","tag-intelligence","tag-pregnancy","tag-study-says","tag-supplements"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=894582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894582\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/894583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=894582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=894582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=894582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}