Seafood consumption during pregnancy is thought to be beneficial for child neuropsychological development, but to our knowledge no large cohort studies with high fatty fish consumption have analyzed the association by seafood subtype. We evaluated 1,892 and 1,589 mother-child pairs at the ages of 14 months and 5 years, respectively, in a population-based Spanish birth cohort established during 2004-2008. Bayley and McCarthy scales and the Childhood Asperger Syndrome Test were used to assess neuropsychological development. Results from multivariate linear regression models were adjusted for sociodemographic characteristics and further adjusted for umbilical cord blood mercury or long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid concentrations. Overall, consumption of seafood above the recommended limit of 340 g/week was associated with 10-g/week increments in neuropsychological scores. By subtype, in addition to lean fish, consumption of large fatty fish showed a positive association; offspring of persons within the highest quantile (>238 g/week) had an adjusted increase of 2.29 points in McCarthy general cognitive score (95% confidence interval: 0.42, 4.16). Similar findings were observed for the Childhood Asperger Syndrome Test. Beta coefficients diminished 15%-30% after adjustment for mercury or long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid concentrations. Consumption of large fatty fish during pregnancy presents moderate child neuropsychological benefits, including improvements in cognitive functioning and some protection from autism-spectrum traits.

This study was funded by grants from the Spanish Institute of Health Carlos III (Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness) (Infancia y Medio Ambiente (INMA) Network grants G03/176 and CB06/02/0041 and Fondo de Investigación Sanitaria (FIS) grants FIS-PI041436, FIS-PI081151, FIS-PI042018, FIS-PI09/02311, FIS-PI06/0867, FIS-PS09/00090, FIS-PI03/1615, FIS-PI04/1509, FIS-PI04/1112, FIS-PI04/1931, FIS-PI05/1079, FIS-PI05/1052, FIS-PI06/1213, FIS-PI07/0314, FIS-PI09/02647, FIS-13/02429, FIS-PI13/1944, FIS-PI13/2032, and CP14/00108); the Fondo de Investigación Sanitaria-Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional; the Generalitat de Catalunya-Consejo Interdepartamental de Investigación e Innovación Tecnológica (grant 1999SGR 00241); Juan de la Cierva (grant 2011-09771-MICINN); the Conselleria de Sanitat Generalitat Valenciana 1 (grants 048/2010 and 060/2010); the Universidad de Oviedo, Obra Social Cajastur, Department of Health of the Basque Government (grants 2005111093 and 2009111069); the Provincial Government of Gipuzkoa (grants DFG06/004 and DFG08/001); and the Fundación Roger Torné. Miguel Servet fellowships (MS13/00054 and MS14/00108) were awarded to M.G. and J.J. by the Spanish Institute of Health Carlos III.