We found that for Hb, DHA, and AA, the adjusted estimates were only moderately attenuated (e.g., from 0.15 to 0.14 gross motor z‐score per 1 SD increase in DHA), whereas the associations with recent illness, positive malaria test, and CRP were largely explained by lower cooperativeness (e.g., from −0.17 to −0.10 gross motor z‐score among children with recent illness, which was no longer significant, P = .07). Here, GSTM1 is linked to malaria.