Key Nutrients Crucial for Older Child Development

Related Materials

Infant Nutrition Conference Report Publication

Key Nutrients Crucial For Older Infants’ Development

Journal of Nutrition Highlights Advances In Infant Feeding Over Past 25 Years

ATLANTA (January 19, 2007) – According to Nancy Krebs, M.D., a professor of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and former Chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Committee on Nutrition, it can be difficult to meet the nutritional needs of older infants.  Since human milk alone is no longer adequate to meet infant nutritional requirements after 6 months of age, complementary foods are crucial.  In a report featured in the February 2007 edition of Journal of Nutrition, Krebs concludes that in older infants, meat could be a critical complementary food for providing recommended zinc and iron levels.

“Meats and liver provide a nutrient profile meeting the iron and zinc needs of the older breastfed infant,” Krebs states, “that is not easily provided by plant-based diets or in the absence of food fortification or nutrient supplements.”

The report features Krebs and other international and U.S. nutrition experts who presented at the American Society for Nutrition at Experimental Biology meeting on April 5, 2006. The special session, Advances in Meeting the Nutritional Needs of Infants Worldwide*,highlighted achievements and challenges in infant nutrition and health outcomes over the past 25 years. These experts underscored the importance of nutrition throughout infancy as well as the benefits of human milk and the advances in infant formulas including the addition of important nutrients like taurine, carnitine, nucleotides, and long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids.

For the full supplement report, which will be released on January 19, please visit http://jn.nutrition.org/.

# # #

Note to Editors: Experimental Biology is a multi-society, interdisciplinary, scientific meeting attended by 12,000 independent scientists and sponsored by the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB).  This research was presented as part of the American Society for Nutrition section of FASEB on April 5, 2006. 

*This conference was sponsored by the International Formula Council, an association of manufacturers and marketers of formulated nutrition products, e.g., infant formulas and adult nutritionals, whose members are based predominantly in North America.  IFC members are: Mead Johnson Nutrition; Nestlé Infant Nutrition; Abbott’s Abbott Nutrition; Solus Products; and Wyeth Nutrition.

IFC is an international association of manufacturers and marketers of formulated nutrition products (e.g., infant formulas and adult nutritionals) whose members are predominantly based in North America. IFC members include all U.S. manufacturers: Mead Johnson Nutrition; Nestlé Infant Nutrition; PBM Products, LLC; Abbott Nutrition; Solus Products, LLC; and Wyeth Nutrition