Mum's iron puts kids on their mettle

Iron deficiency is the most common and widespread nutritional disorder in the world, affecting around 2 billion people. Iron is essential for the development of the central nervous system and early iron deficiency can interfere with nerve development, biochemistry and metabolism. Researchers from Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health studied 676 school-age children in Nepal. Their mothers had participated in a trial in which some of them received iron and folic acid supplements while they were pregnant while others didn't. The children whose mothers had received the supplements had better intellectual function, executive function and fine motor skills than those whose mothers had had no supplements.