ENERGY-INTAKE IN EARLY INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD FATNESS

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether aspects of infant energy intake are related to fatness in early childhood. DESIGN: Longitudinal investigat ion of infants studied at 12 weeks and 2-3.5 y.SUBJECTS: 20 healthy in fants, breast-fed or formula-fed, from the general population. MEASURE MENTS: Milk volume intake (MVI) by deuterium turnover, estimated energ y intake, weaning status and body composition in infancy, body composi tion in childhood. RESULTS: MVI was not related to infant skinfolds or percentage fat. Weaning was inversely related to MVI (P < 0.04) at 12 weeks, and inversely related to skinfolds (P = 0.055) and fat mass (P = 0.020) in childhood, MVI and total energy intake were not related t o childhood fatness. CONCLUSIONS: Early weaning was associated with a moderate reduction in childhood fatness. Two possible mechanisms are d iscussed. However, early infant energy intake was not an important det erminant of later fatness in this population.