Infant Feeding and Growth as Related to Indices of Fatness and Serum Cholesterol at Age 8 Years

摘要

The study was undertaken to test two hypotheses: (1) nutritional factors that can be identified during the first 112 days of life are predictive of fatness at age 8 years; (2) nutritional factors (specially dietary intake of cholesterol and saturated fatty acids) operating during the first four months of life influence the ability of the individual (perhaps only the male) to withstand dietary cholesterol challenge (such as that presented by the usual American diet) at age 8 years. These hypotheses were tested by examining at age 8 years a group of subjects who had been studied intensively during early infancy. Measures of body weight and ratio of weight to length at age 112 days of age were for most sex and feeding groups significantly correlated with body weight and ratio of weight to height but not to skinfold thickness at age 8 years. There was no evidence that these correlations were influenced by breast versus formula feeding during the first 112 days of life. Length at 112 days of age was significantly correlated with height at age 8 years. Serum concentrations of cholesterol were significantly greater at 56 and 112 days of age in breastfed than in formula-fed infants but at age 8 years no statistically significant difference in serum concentrations of cholesterol was related to mode of feeding during the first 112 days of life.