Children were more organized, had better motor skills than peers
According to U.S. researchers, children in rural Nepal whose mothers took iron and folic acid supplements during pregnancy had children who were smarter, more organized, and had better fine motor skills than those whose mothers didn’t get the supplements, Reuters reports. Making sure pregnant women get such basic prenatal care could have a big effect on children who live in poor communities, they noted, where iron deficiency is common. Iron is important for the central nervous system, noted the study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, and early iron deficiency can interfere with everything from nerve development to metabolism. Even so, iron deficiency is the most common nutritional disorder in the world and affects 2 billion people.