Early Life Nutrition and Growth Trajectories and Metabolic Outcomes

While the World Health Organisation’s growth standards are not actually correct, as they are based on cohorts of infants that were “predominantly” breastfed rather than exclusively breastfed, they are better than any other standards that exist. 

In this presentation, Ferdinand Haschke focuses on three groups of infants in terms of long term growth vs. the WHO standards: firstly, very low birth weight infants who are SGA (Slow Gestational Age) or IUGR (Intrauterine Growth Retarded); secondly, infants from developing countries of all birthweights; and finally, infants from developed countries with either low or high protein intakes from birth. 

For each group, he looks at available studies and research across their first 1,000 days of life and concludes that this time offers a key window of opportunity to prevent stunting and other developmental issues and the amount of protein consumed plays a major role. He notes that the nutritional health of the mother is very important, both pre-pregnancy and during pregnancy, but this topic has rarely been studied. Infant formulas are getting closer to breastmilk in terms of protein content, but controlled studies are needed.