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Pregnant or Breastfeeding? Iodine Deficiency Could Affect Your Child

Many pregnant and breastfeeding women in the U.S. may be lacking iodine in their diets, which is an essential element for their babies’ brain development.

As consumption of processed foods has increased, so has the level of iodine deficiency, with about one-third of pregnant women in the U.S. being deficient.

Pregnant and lactating women should take supplements that contain adequate levels of iodine; but only about 15 percent of this group does so. Adequate iodine intake is needed to produce thyroid hormone, which is critical for brain development in children.

Special guest, Dr. Jerome A. Paulson, shares information on how you can ensure your child is healthy and develops to his or her full potential.
Pregnant or Breastfeeding? Iodine Deficiency Could Affect Your Child
Featuring:
Jerome A. Paulson, MD
Paulson headJerome A. Paulson, MD, is Professor of Pediatrics and Professor of Environmental & Occupational Health at the George Washington University Schools of Medicine and of Public Health. He is the Medical Director for National & Global Affairs of the Child Health Advocacy Institute and director of the Mid-Atlantic Center for Children’s Health at the Children’s National Medical Center. Dr. Paulson chairs the executive committee of the Council on Environmental Health of the American Academy of Pediatrics and serves on the Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee for the US EPA. In 2004 he was a Dozor Visiting Professor at Ben Gurion University in Beer Sheva, Israel. He was a recipient of a Soros Advocacy Fellowship for Physicians from the Open Society Institute and worked with the Children’s Environmental Health Network, and has also served as a special assistant to the director of the National Center on Environmental Health of the CDC working on children’s environmental health issues.