THE INFLUENCE OF EARLY DIET ON LATER DEVELOPMENT

The possibility that early nutrition has long term consequences in man has been much debated. There have been limited opportunities to perfo rm formal randomised studies on the effect of early nutrition in man a nd many studies have been flawed by problems with study design. Infant s born preterm are a special group. At the start of this study in 1982 evidence on which to base choice of diet was inconsistent and related only to short term outcome, and diets available for such babies diffe red greatly in nutrient content. In this group it was both ethical and practical to conduct a formal, randomised trial of early diet and out come and the results were clearly needed for management decisions. A l ong term prospective outcome study was undertaken on 926 preterm infan ts randomly assigned to the diet received in the neonatal period. Surv iving children have been followed at 9 months, 18 months and now 7 1/2 -8 years of age. The findings suggest that children fed a nutrient sup plemented preterm formula perform better than those fed a standard for mula milk, and also that human milk may contain factors which promote brain growth or development. Outcome data from the randomised trials s how that a very brief period of dietary manipulation (on average for t he first 4 weeks of life) influences later development.