American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol 57, 140-145, Copyright © 1993 by The American Society for Clinical Nutrition, Inc

ORIGINAL RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS

Breast-fed infants are leaner than formula-fed infants at 1 y of age: the DARLING study

KG Dewey, MJ Heinig, LA Nommsen, JM Peerson and B Lonnerdal
Department of Nutrition, University of California, Davis 95616-8669.

Anthropometric indexes from 1 to 24 mo were compared between matched cohorts of infants either breast-fed (BF, n = 46) or formula-fed (FF, n = 41) until > or = 12 mo. Neither group received solid foods before 4 mo. Weight-for-length was significantly greater among FF infants from 7 to 24 mo. In both groups, skinfold thickness (triceps, biceps, subscapular, flank, and quadriceps) and estimated percent body fat (%FAT) increased rapidly during the first 6-8 mo and declined thereafter. At all sites except biceps, FF infants had larger skinfold thicknesses in later infancy (particularly 9-15 mo) than did BF infants; %FAT was significantly higher from 5 to 24 mo. Lower energy intake among BF infants explained the difference between groups. Maternal and infant fatness were positively correlated at 12-24 mo. Breast-milk lipid and energy concentration were unrelated to infant fatness. These results indicate that infants BF for > or = 12 mo are leaner than their FF counterparts.

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