I was reading an abstract of an article, Rask-Nissil, et al. ,Low-Fat,
Low-Cholesterol Diet Started in Infancy Does Not Hamper Neurological
Development for Children, JAMA 2000; 284:993-1000.

The authors are looking at modifying the fat intake in 7 mo old babies to
reduce intake from high-fat sources (they didn't say anything in the
abstract about milk source, but these were Finnish infants, so I am
supposing they were breastfed and that the fat sources being modified are
solids.)  Anyway, they followed the kids for 5 yrs and found no neurological
deficits resulting from lowered fat and cholestrol intake.  But here is the
statement I would like to have discussion on:  "Because 75% of brain growth
is completed by the age of 3 yrs, the brain's ability to recover from ealy
childhood nutritional deficiencies is limited.  Severe malnutrition in the
first year of life, even if corrected later, is associated with intelligence
deficiencies at age 11 to 18 years." Has anyone seen any literature
cooraborating this statement?  Has anyone read the full article?  Does this
abstract accurately reflect the full text?  Comments?


Barbara Wilson-Clay BSEd, IBCLC
Austin Lactation Associates
http://www.lactnews.com

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