THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE DIET AND THE GROWTH OF INFANTS DURING THE WEANING PERIOD (6-18 MONTHS) / 营养学报

ABSTRACT

The growth curves and diet of 185 babies in rural area near Beijing from 6 months to 18 months old have been studied. Infants were divided into 3 groups according to their diet taken(1) 89 babies had breast milk only;(2) 66 babies took more than 250g animal milk per day besides breast milk;(3) 30 babies who did not have breast milk and only animal milk was taken. All the babies were gradually transferred to an ordinary cereal based diet during the weaning period. To half of them a soybean and cereal based formula fortified with minerals and vitamins was supplied, which would provide 6.6g protein and 141 kcal and some other nutrients per day.The results showed that the growth curves of body weight and height of children were much better than the data obtained in 1975, but still lagged behind that of the urban children, especially for the body weight. The weight curves of the babies who took animal milk seemed higher than the other groups. Female babies who were fed with breast milk and supplemented with the weaning food have a better weight and height curves than non-supplemented ones, but this was not seen in males. The hemoglobin contents of the babies who took animal milk when they were 18 months old were lower than that of the 6 months old, but there were no differences in the breast milk groups, and the lowering of the hemoglobin level in the animal milk groups could be corrected by adding weaning food in the diet. When the babies were 6 months old, 39.3% of them had a hair zinc content below the lower limit of the normal range, and it became to 47.6% when they were 18 months old. So zinc deficiency of the babies were present in this local area, and it should be fortified into the weaning food.