From the August issue of Discover Magazine:

                                   Bottle-Fed Eyes

      While many of us seek to cut fat from our diet, some babies
      may not be getting enough to stay healthy. Over the last
      decade, scientists have found that babies born prematurely need
      supplements of certain fats--in particular a group of
      polyunsaturated fats called omega-threes, in order for their
      vision to develop normally. Infants usually get these fats in
      their last months in the womb, so premature babies don't get a
      full dose. Now vision researcher Eileen Birch and her
      colleagues at the Retina Foundation of the Southwest in Dallas
      have found that all babies apparently need the fats even a few
      months after birth. And, says Birch, not just any fatty acid in
      this group will do. She thinks all babies need one called DHA.
      Without it, their vision suffers.

      Human milk contains DHA, says Birch, but at least a third of
      American babies drink only formula from birth, and formula
      lacks this fat. DHA is a crucial building block of the
      membranes of nerve cells in the retina and brain (and also of
      red blood cell membranes)--crucial because it is believed to
      keep those membranes fluid and permeable. This is important
      because nerve cells depend on the efficient passage of
      molecules across their membranes to generate the signals that
      transmit visual information from the retina to the brain. Those
      membranes develop rapidly from the final three months of
      pregnancy to six months after birth, after which they're
      essentially set for life. If babies don't get enough dha during
      this critical period, another fatty acid takes its place, one
      that makes the cell membranes less fluid--and one that may
      therefore impair the transmission of nerve signals.

      Birch and her colleagues studied 162 infants, none of whom
      were born prematurely, for one year. The researchers found that
      babies fed formula without DHA had poorer vision than babies
      who were given a DHA supplement. The difference between the two
      groups, Birch says, is equivalent to about one line on an eye
      chart. "It's not as though it's putting them in a poorly
      performing group," Birch says. "They're just slightly below
      average, and the kids with the supplement are slightly above
      average."

      Birch says the Food and Drug Administration will decide by next
      spring if DHA is necessary for infant development. She expects
      the FDA will indeed mandate that DHA be added to infant formula.