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Nutrients
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The Role of Nutrients in Child Neurodevelopment
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The Role of Nutrients in Child Neurodevelopment

A special issue of Nutrients (ISSN 2072-6643). This special issue belongs to the section "Pediatric Nutrition".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (25 July 2025) | Viewed by 2346

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Tania Siahanidou

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Neonatal Unit, First Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 11527 Athens, Greece
Interests: pediatrics; neonatology; prematurity; neonatal feeding and nutrition; peptides and hormones involved in neonatal metabolism; neonatal infections; neurodevelopment; insulin resistance; metabolism; glucose metabolism; nutrition; lipid metabolism; metabolic diseases; fat; abdominal obesity
Dr. Katherine Svensson

E-Mail
Guest Editor
Department of Environmental Medicine and Climate Science, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, 17 East 102nd Street, New York, NY 10029, USA
Interests: nutrition; maternal; pregnancy; childhood; adiposity; environmental health

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

There is emerging literature pointing towards the importance of nutritious diet for optimizing child neurodevelopment, even from the time of pregnancy. Optimal nutrition during pregnancy has a significant role in fetal brain development and has been associated with favorable birth outcomes and child growth. Brain development continues until adulthood, and good nutrition is vital throughout childhood and adolescence to promote healthy neurodevelopment. Even so, brain development is a complex process, and the influence of macronutrients and micronutrients on child neurodevelopment is not fully understood. Therefore, the role of nutrition in preventing adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes, mitigating the effect of neurotoxicants, and supporting infant brain development is an area to be further explored.

The Special Issue will include manuscripts that focus on the role of nutrition in fetal and child neurodevelopment and neurodevelopmental outcomes. Specifically, the importance of nutrition in fetal programming, disease prevention, therapeutic potential, and the promotion of improved neurodevelopmental outcomes. This Special Issue welcomes original research articles from epidemiological studies and review articles. The content may be useful for helping researchers to further advance research, as well as for nutritionists and clinical practitioners in research translation.

Dr. Tania Siahanidou
Dr. Katherine Svensson
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Nutrients is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • nutrition
  • neurodevelopment
  • child
  • prenatal nutrition
  • fetal development
  • malnutrition
  • health promotion
  • mitigation

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

29 pages, 1592 KB  
Article
Human Milk Oligosaccharide Composition at 6 Weeks Is Associated with Temperament and Eating Behaviors of Children in the STRONG Kids 2 Cohort Through 4 Years of Age
by Yuting Fan, Kelly F. Bost and Sharon M. Donovan
Nutrients 2025, 17(13), 2080; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu17132080 - 23 Jun 2025
Viewed by 470
Abstract
Background/Objectives: Early childhood is a critical window of development, which is influenced by early life exposures including breastfeeding. Observational and preclinical studies have linked human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) with neurocognitive development. However, less attention has focused on behavioral outcomes including temperament and eating [...] Read more.
Background/Objectives: Early childhood is a critical window of development, which is influenced by early life exposures including breastfeeding. Observational and preclinical studies have linked human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) with neurocognitive development. However, less attention has focused on behavioral outcomes including temperament and eating behaviors. Herein, we investigated the associations between HMO consumption and child temperament and child eating behaviors through four years of age. Methods: Participants were drawn from the STRONG Kids 2 cohort. Human milk was collected at 6 weeks postpartum, and HMO relative abundances were determined by HPLC-MS. Using validated questionnaires, child temperament was assessed at 3, 18, and 48 months of age, and child eating behaviors were measured at 12, 18, 24, 36, and 48 months of age. After adjusting for covariates, multiple linear regressions were carried out to assess the relationship between HMOs and the outcome measures. Results: The HMO profile of mothers showed two distinct clusters explained by maternal secretor status. Significant associations between HMO and surgency were only found in the full cohort and secretors, while more associations between HMO and negative affectivity were observed in non-secretors. A significant number of associations was observed between HMOs and child eating behaviors in full cohort, secretors, and non-secretors. HMO diversity, total fucosylation, and total sialylation were positively associated with food responsiveness, while neutral HMOs presented negative associations. However, these associations with food responsiveness were not observed in non-secretors. Conclusions: HMO profiles were associated with behavioral outcomes in the children, with variations by child age and maternal secretor status, highlighting the potential role of HMOs within the broader context of maternal and postnatal influences. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Role of Nutrients in Child Neurodevelopment)
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14 pages, 814 KB  
Article
Cobalamin Status Among Patients with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD)—A Preliminary Study
by Magdalena Król-Dykas, Katarzyna Dyląg, Katarzyna Przybyszewska, Katarzyna Burkot, Aleksandra Tokarz, Katarzyna Kowalska, Paulina Dumnicka, Magdalena Kurnik-Łucka, Marta Zarzycka and Krzysztof Gil
Nutrients 2025, 17(3), 409; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu17030409 - 23 Jan 2025
Viewed by 1282
Abstract
Background/Objectives: Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders comprise a range of neurodevelopmental disorders caused by prenatal alcohol exposure. Recent investigations have revealed that among patients with neurodevelopmental disorders, serum cobalamin (vitamin B12) levels are substantially higher than those of healthy controls. Patients with fetal alcohol [...] Read more.
Background/Objectives: Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders comprise a range of neurodevelopmental disorders caused by prenatal alcohol exposure. Recent investigations have revealed that among patients with neurodevelopmental disorders, serum cobalamin (vitamin B12) levels are substantially higher than those of healthy controls. Patients with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders similarly present with higher levels of cobalamin, yet the significance of cobalamin in the pathogenesis of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders remains to be established. This study aimed to examine cobalamin and other cobalamin status markers in patients with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders in comparison with healthy controls. Methods: In total, 80 patients were enrolled in the study—41 diagnosed with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders and 39 healthy controls. The diet history method was used to assess vitamin B12 intake for three days preceding blood sampling. Total vitamin B12 (cobalamin), holotranscobalamin, methylmalonic acid and soluble transcobalamin receptor (CD320) were measured in serum samples. Results: The daily intake of vitamin B12 was higher in patients with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders compared to controls, both in the simple analysis and after adjusting for age (OR for patients with FASDs: 1.82; 95% CI: 1.16–2.87). An elevated serum cobalamin level was noted in some patients from the group with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. No statistically significant differences were found between the groups in serum levels of cobalamin, holotranscobalamin, CD320 or methylmalonic acid. However, the correlations between cobalamin and its metabolites differed in fetal alcohol spectrum disorders as compared to those in the control group. Conclusions: Our study did not find any deficits of vitamin B12 and its metabolites in patients with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. Further studies to investigate the role of vitamin B12 in the pathogenesis of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders should be established given the fact that both high and low levels of vitamin B12 may have negative health impacts. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Role of Nutrients in Child Neurodevelopment)
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