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Although Beatrix Potter was a child prodigy and had been writing and illustrating stories since she was 3, her talent was not recognised by her parents. It wasn’t until Beatrix’s father discovered how enthusiastically his friends received the first Peter Rabbit book that he realised how brilliant his daughter was. My grandchildren are as enthusiastic about Peter Rabbit and Jemima Puddleduck as we were 70 years ago, or Laura Ford, the artist, is now. Her latest exhibition (at the Houldsworth Gallery, Barlby Road, London, W10) demonstrates this excitement – her style and subject matter are so similar to Potter’s that they are almost indistinguishable.

Apart from her parents’ failure to realise what a gifted child they had, Beatrix Potter had every advantage in early life. Her father’s main concern was that she should be happy and he was relieved that she was good-looking and socially accomplished.

Other qualities are now needed in a world that is more competitive than it was in the late Victorian age. Modern parents, understandably, regularly analyse their children’s attributes and assess their intelligence. However brightly Christmas decorations sparkle and parents glory in their children having a starring role in Nativity plays, the sad truth is that few would be overjoyed if their sons and daughters became carpenters or shepherds.

The final character, and to a lesser extent intellect, of our descendants depends on nurture as well as nature, on the environment they are brought up in as well as their inherited genotype. Whether we are parents, or grandparents, we can do nothing about the genes we hand on other than tailor the environment to enable their potential advantages to flourish and disadvantages to remain hidden.

We can, however, boost children’s intelligence so that they may shine in Tony Blair’s academies and jump whatever hurdles that have to be cleared to enter Oxbridge in 15 years’ time. A congenial environment may also modify any personality problems associated with the rag-bag of genes that we hand on to our unfortunate successors.

Home life and education are accepted as being pivotal factors in the formation of character. Diet is one aspect of the environment that is too easily neglected. A pregnant woman’s nutrition affects the baby’s development, including that of the brain and the central nervous system, while it is still in the womb. Diet continues to influence intellect, memory and personality until someone has left their childhood so far behind that he or she is struggling to understand the orders and demands of the carers in an old persons’ home.

The message has been received, if not acted upon: that we all need a balanced diet of protein, fat and carbohydrate enhanced by five different types of vegetables or fruit every day. The importance of the campaign that champions the advantage of having oily fish two or three times a week is still underappreciated. Few pregnant women and parents realise how useful omega3 is in developing intellectual prowess and preserving a stable personality. Most people know that omega3 and fish oil lessens the likelihood of heart attacks, preserves arterial health and reduces the tendency of blood to clot. Many are aware that fish oil has antiinflammatory powers – and even my grandparents understood that it eased arthritic pain. There is growing evidence that omega3 can also influence some of the symptoms of ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia and autism.

For 10 or 15 years the chemist’s shelves have been well stocked with omega-3-rich fish oil manufactured by Seven Seas, Efamol, Haliborange, Omacor, Healthspan and a host of others. However, only recently have the shelves of doctors’ libraries been equally well filled by university research papers that contain the evidence confirming its powers.

Dr Peter Willatts and his colleagues at the University of Dundee, Bernard Gesch, and Dr Alex Richardson and her associates, at Oxford, have demonstrated omega3’s use in honing the intellect of small babies. Other scientists, including those working with the Dutch department of justice at the Radboud University Nijmegen, have demonstrated its influence on aggressiveness and other behavioural problems. Their work echoes the study by Dr Jacqueline Stordy of troubled Cotswold teenagers.

Dr Willatts has produced sound evidence of the advantages derived from giving children aged from six months to three years a daily dose of omega3 DHA. He has also demonstrated that when omega3 is manufactured from the algae on which fish feed, as in Haliborange, the omega3 can be added to a baby’s bottle or a toddler’s food without them noticing it. Quite an achievement, as a baby has four to five as many taste buds as an adult. Efamol has introduced different preparations for different age groups. Efanatal is an omega3 preparation suitable in pregnancy; Efamarine, a mixture of 80 per cent fish oil to 20 per cent Primrose oil – the balance is always important – suits most people; and Efalex Active 50+ is for grandparents. The Journal of Neurology and The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition have recently published evidence demonstrating omega3’s value in keeping the older generation alert.

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