Wednesday, 19 January 2022, 17.00 CET, per Zoom,
Speaker: Sandra van der Haar
Translation: Croatian, Czech, German, French, Turkish and Ukrainian
Webinar’s record from 19 January 2022 is ready to watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/edsachannel
Dietary supplements are popular among parents of children with Down syndrome. Several manufacturers claim beneficial effects on health and cognitive functioning and parents post on social media about the positive changes they observe in their child due to supplementation.
In the Netherlands, the Down Syndrome Foundation (SDS) often receives questions from parents through their helpdesk about whether or not to provide dietary supplements. Therefore, the SDS asked the Wageningen University & Research (WUR) Science Shop last year to investigate whether there is scientific evidence to recommend dietary supplements for children with Down syndrome.
WUR researchers and students spent more than 6 months working on this study, that consisted of fieldwork and an extensive literature study. As part of the fieldwork a survey was conducted among 234 Dutch parents of children with Down Syndrome to gain insights into patterns of dietary supplement use. In addition, parents and professionals (dieticians, physicians and a supplement manufacturer) were interviewed to explore different points of view regarding dietary supplements for children with Down syndrome.
The results of this study have been published in October 2021. In the webinar Sandra van der Haar will give an overview of the main results of the study.
Information in Dutch on the project website https://www.wur.nl/nl/show/Voedingssupplementen-bij-kinderen-met-Downsyndroom.htm
Information in English: The final research report has the title: Rapport: ‘Dietary supplements for children with Down syndrome’ and this is the link: https://www.wur.nl/nl/show/Rapport-Dietary-supplements-for-children-with-Down-syndrome.htm
Biography
Sandra van der Haar works since 2017 as a nutrition scientist at Wageningen Food and Biobased Research in the Netherlands (part of Wageningen University & Research).
Sandra has a background as a dietician and obtained her masters degree in ‘Nutrition & Health’ at Wageningen University. The focus of her research group is on the health effects of food products, certain diets and dietary supplements in humans. For the current project she was both the lead scientist and project manager.