Bottle-fed on fish oil

Vital signs

Babies fed with formula milk supplemented with a blend of fish oil achieve the same visual and neural development as those fed on breast milk, say Australian researchers. The fish oil contains DHA, a polyunsaturated acid found in breast milk that is now thought to be essential for optimum brain development, but which most formula milks lack.

The study, published in the Lancet, carried out tests to measure visual acuity - how well the eye can resolve fine detail - in 79 babies who were given either breast milk, formula supplemented with DHA or unsupplemented formula. They found that infants on supplemented formula did as well in the tests as those on breast milk.