<font color="0000ff">Extracted from My Paper dtd 10 Jan 2008</font>
<font size="+1">Research shows children below the age of 6 should not eat too much of certain types of fish
<font color="ff0000">P</font></font>ARENTS have been warned to feed young children small fish rather than larger species to avoid a build up of dangerously high levels of mercury in their growing bodies.
Research published in the Medical Journal of Australia shows that children below the age of 6 should not eat too much of certain types of fish.
The report, co-authored by Dr Stephen Corbett, who heads the centre for population health at Sydney West Area Health Service, found that <u>fish is good for children’s nutrition so long as it is the right type in the right quantity</u>.
"Two to three portions a week and small fish for small fry", Dr Corbett said.
<font color="0077aa"><font size="+1">"Even at relatively low levels, mercury can affect children’s neural and mental development"</font></font>, he said.
Dr Corbett examined three cases in Sydney where children aged between 15 months and two years had elevated mercury levels after eating up to five times the recommended dietary intake of fish.
The children had been fed congee. When the children stopped eating fish, their mercury levels dropped.
New South Wales State Health Minister Reba Meagher said the research showed that too much fish can be detrimental.
The NSW Food Authority’s chief scientist, Dr Lisa Szabo, said <u>there are only six types of fish parents need to worry about — shark, broadbill, swordfish, marlin, orange roughy and catfish</u>.
"In part it’s because they’re bigger. But they’re also longer lived and they’re predatory fish, which means that they eat a lot of small fish so that’s why they tend to accumulate the mercury", she said.