A University of Illinois food science professor recommends adding fish to your child’s diet to enhance brain and nerve development.

“First, babies need a lot of the omega-3 fatty acids found in fish for brain, nerve, and eye development, and when they switch from breast milk or formula to solid food, most of them don’t get nearly enough,” said Susan Brewer, also a registered dietitian.

“Second, children’s food preferences are largely developed by the time they’re five, so I urge parents to help their kids develop a taste for seafood early,” she said.

Fish that are high in omega-3 fatty acids, such as salmon, have huge health benefits and help to prevent coronary artery disease, but most adults don’t eat fish twice weekly as experts recommend. In predisposing children toward liking fish, parents are doing their kids a big favor, she said.

Brewer knows her recommendations might meet with some resistance.

“When we started working on salmon baby food, I thought, Ewwwh! But the American Heart Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics is solidly behind the idea, and fish-based baby foods, common in Asian markets, have been marketed successfully in the United Kingdom and Italy.”

Brewer collaborated with former U of I professor Peter Bechtel, now of Alaska’s Agricultural Research Service, in the effort to create a viable product, using wild-caught salmon from Alaskan waters.