Infant Nutrition

Initial findings from a multicentre study to examine the long term effects of different feeding regimes assigned randomly to premature babies during the early weeks postpartum are reported. Some early clinical and metabolic differences between randomized feed groups do not persist at 18 months. In other instances, however, the diet assigned in the postpartum period may have important effects over 18 months later. These findings emphasize the importance of long‐term follow up in such studies and provide preliminary evidence supporting the view that the early weeks may be a critical period for nutrition in preterm infants in terms of their later performance. Studies using the doubly‐labelled water method are presented which show its potential for approaching key issues in energy metabolism. One study shows that infants of obese mothers who themselves become overweight did not consume more energy than control infants of normal weight, but they exhibited a reduction in energy expenditure sufficient to account for their excessive weight gain. A second study suggests that the energy content of breast milk consumed by the infant is substantially less than that frequently reported in ‘unphysiologically’ expressed milk. These findings have important implications for infant nutrition.