ENERGY-INTAKE AND GROWTH OF 3-MONTH-OLD TO 36-MONTH-OLD GERMAN INFANTS AND CHILDREN

Recently, new estimations of the energy requirements of infants and ch ildren were proposed as a basis of new FAO/WHO energy requirements. We have compared the energy intake of 354 healthy, well-nourished infant s taking part in the Dortmund Nutritional and Anthropometric Longitudi nal Designed Study (3-day-weighted diet records) with these new estima ted energy requirements. The energy intake of breastfed and formula-fe d infants and the energy intake of the I-to 3-year-old children in the study population corresponded well with the new estimated energy requ irements, although these were considerably lower than the 1985 FAO/WHO energy requirements. Breast-feeding rates were lower and the introduc tion of beikost was earlier than the current recommendations. Height a nd weight, which were taken as global indicators of the adequacy of th e energy intake, were in good accordance with The Netherlands' third n ationwide survey. Our data indicate that the new estimations of energy requirement seem to be more appropriate than the 1985 FAO/WHO energy requirements.