DHA is closely related to the brain development and vision of infants and young children, therefore, DHA has a great reputation. Fetuses, infants and young children need to get enough DHA, so how much DHA do babies need every day, and will too much of it be poisonous? What is the role of DHA? DHA is the most abundant polyunsaturated fatty acid in retinal photoreceptors, accounting for about 93% of the total amount of Omega-3 in the retina. Studies have found that DHA can enhance the visual acuity and cognitive ability of infants, and also plays an important role in the development of the baby’s brain. Fetal and infant period is the key period of rapid central nervous development, research has found that from late pregnancy to 2 years of age, brain tissue DHA concentration increased linearly, which suggests that DHA may have an important impact on the development of neurological function of the fetus and infant, at least as a nutrient base . In addition, DHA supplementation during pregnancy has been found to reduce the risk of early preterm labor and modestly promote fetal growth, while low DHA levels may be a risk factor for postpartum depression. Since DHA is an essential nutrient for brain and vision development, special populations such as pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers, infants and young children need to be provided with adequate amounts of DHA. How much DHA does a baby need to consume? The body must obtain essential fatty acids from food to satisfy the body’s needs, including linoleic acid and alpha-linolenic acid, which can be synthesized into DHA. However, the conversion efficiency is not high. Therefore, it is best if DHA can be obtained directly from food to meet the body’s needs. According to the recommendations of the Chinese Nutrition Society and the Chinese Expert Consensus on DHA Supplementation for Mothers, Infants and Children, the daily intake of DHA+EPA during pregnancy and lactation should be 250 mg, of which DHA should not be less than 200 mg, and infants and children need to get 100 mg of DHA from food or supplements every day. How old is it acceptable for babies to take DHA? After the baby is born within 6 months try to breastfeed, breast milk is rich in DHA and other fatty acids beneficial to the baby’s vision and brain development, for formula-fed babies, you need to choose DHA-rich milk powder. After the baby added complementary food, you can intake of DHA-rich low mercury marine fish, such as salmon, moray eel, small yellowtail, and so on. Alpha-linolenic acid-rich vegetable oils such as flaxseed oil can also be added, which is beneficial to the body’s conversion to DHA through alpha-linolenic acid. If it is not possible to ensure that the diet can obtain 100mg of DHA per day, you can give your baby a DHA supplement, for example, 100mg per day. In other words, if we can’t figure out how much DHA we are actually getting from food, we can routinely supplement our babies with 100 mg per day, at least until after they are 2 years old. Too much DHA can be toxic, true or false? DHA is a polyunsaturated fatty acid, which is safe to eat, but we advocate that we try to get as much as possible from food without worrying about overdose. If you take a large dose, you need to consider the quality of the supplement itself on one hand, and on the other hand, you need to consider that too much supplementation may not bring greater benefits. DHA belongs to polyunsaturated fatty acids, not stable enough, too much is easy to be oxidized, after oxidation, become free radicals, may attack our organism, so it is not the more DHA intake the better. Chinese Nutrition Society suggests that for adults daily intake of DHA in the range of 250 ~ 20,000 mg are acceptable for children, pregnancy, breast milk and did not develop this range, so the specific supplementation of how much the dose will have a certain potential for harm, not good to determine. However, in general, in accordance with the recommended amount of supplementation can be, do not need to supplement too high dose.