At normal birthweights, the rate of severe developmental brain damage is 1 to 2 per 1,000 live births.

• At birthweights below 1.5Kg, the rate rises to over 1 in 5.
• The cost to the nation is put at £4 billion by the Little Foundation.
  
• The European Cerebral Palsy Study of the Little Foundation and the Castang Trust, has established from Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the brain damage that it occurs around or before 40 weeks gestation.
• The consequences of low birthweight, brain damage, and mental impairement has become global.

However, cerebral palsy is a tip of an iceberg. In the UK 54,000 children are born at low birthweights (

The work sponsored by the Foundation has produced a good biochemical explanation for the brain damage and chronic ill health. There are modifiable nutritional factors of special relevance to the brain that offer a hope of being able to help protect and treat such damage in the early stages.