Research from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston Children's Hospital, and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute indicates that infants born to mothers who followed a Mediterranean-style diet during pregnancy have a reduced risk of developing colic and eczema. The study highlights the benefits of seafood consumption during pregnancy in lowering these risks.
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Jenifer Lightdale, the study's corresponding author and associate chief of the Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition at Boston Children's Hospital, noted that prior studies have linked colic to higher rates of atopic conditions later in life, such as asthma and food allergies. This study is a pioneering effort to explore how prenatal diet affects the incidence of colic and eczema, particularly since infants with both conditions may have an elevated risk of allergies as they grow.
Published in JAMA Network Open, the study examined dietary habits of over 1,300 pregnant women recruited from prenatal clinics in eastern Massachusetts between April 1999 and November 2002. Participants reported their food consumption through questionnaires, which were evaluated using the Mediterranean Diet Score (MDS) and the Dietary Inflammation Index (DII). A higher MDS score reflected a healthier diet, rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and healthy fats, while a higher DII score indicated an unhealthier diet with high levels of processed foods and sugars.
The findings revealed that 26% of the infants experienced colic, with 5% diagnosed with both colic and eczema. The study found that mothers with a higher adherence to a Mediterranean diet had a 15% reduced risk of having infants with both conditions for each additional MDS point. Conversely, each additional DII point was linked to a 34% increase in risk. Moreover, the researchers discovered that for every weekly serving of seafood consumed by pregnant women, the likelihood of their infants suffering from colic and eczema decreased by 25.
Despite the benefits noted, other allergenic foods such as dairy, eggs, and nuts did not show a significant association with colic and eczema in infants. The strongest associations were found among infants whose mothers had a history of allergic conditions.
Emily Oken, first author and president of the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, emphasized the importance of supporting pregnant women in achieving balanced diets, particularly encouraging seafood consumption. She acknowledged the financial and structural barriers many mothers face in accessing healthy nutrition and underscored the potential implications of their findings for policies and programs aimed at improving women's health and nutrition, including initiatives like WIC and SNAP.