Term and Preterm Infants

Health professionals involved in child care are convinced nowadays that nutrition in early life (the general concept of the so-called 1,000 days) is of paramount importance not only on growth patterns and development in infancy, but also on many health outcomes later in life. In the present chapter we focus on 19 articles related to nutrition in preterm and term infants. Premature babies are at high risk of inadequate nutritional intake, and emphasis is placed on amino acid and lipid regimen in parenteral nutrition, the relationship between energy intake and risk for retinopathy, vitamin D intake and metabolism, donor breast milk and severe infections and mortality, lipid absorption and use of recombinant bile salt-stimulated lipase, DHA supplementation, and visual function and eating difficulties in early childhood. Term infants, i.e., approximately 90% of the population of newborns in industrialized countries, were not left out. During the last year, very interesting data were published on highly controversial topics, such as the use of hypoallergenic formulae in non-breastfed infants at risk for allergy (25-30% of all newborns), the long-term safety of soy-based infant formulae, protein intake and risk for overweight and obesity, and gluten introduction and the risk of celiac disease. There have also been comments on the use of fermented milks without live bacteria and the influence of antibiotic exposure on weight gain. In contrast to the large literature on breast and formula feeding, relatively little attention has been paid to the complementary feeding period, the nature of the foods given, or whether this period of significant dietary change influences later health and development. We selected 2 papers on the nutritional consequences of an increasingly popular feeding technique amongst parents, i.e., baby-led weaning, and on follow-up data up to the age of 6 years on vegetable acceptance during early introduction of complementary foods. As usual, more research is needed. Setting up clinical studies in the field of pediatric nutrition is difficult but indispensable. We cannot use any more observational studies and clinical experience to build up evidence-based guidelines. More randomized clinical studies and prospective population-based cohort studies are obviously needed. We hope that our comments will give the readers more "appetite'' to look for more manuscripts in the field of infant nutrition and more information to prescribe the best nutritional support available for infants during the first months of life