Modification in Complementary Food Composition to Improve the Status of Iron and Fatty Acids in Infants.

Because of rapid growth in the first year of life, infants are at a high risk to develop iron deficiency (ID) or even iron deficiency anaemia (IDA). Iron metabolism in infancy seems to be immature and to be affected by developmental changes and is not yet fully understood. Therefore studies with both, detailed dietary intake and a full set of biomarkers to characterize iron status or the risk of IDA are welcome.

LC-PUFA, especially docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, n-3), are of important meaning in infants´ neural development because neural tissues have a unique pattern of FA. DHA is predominantly found in brain and retina. LC-PUFA can be either supplied preformed by diet or converted from their essential precursors the polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) linoleic acid (LA, n-6) and α-linolenic acid (ALA, n-3) by the organism dependent on the ratio of n-6/n-3 FA in the diet.

In the case of iron as well as of PUFA and LC-PUFA very little is known about the nutritional supply and its effect on status in the second half of the first year of life. Therefore the objective of DINO is to examine the feasibility of increasing meat and of exchanging n-6 rich corn oil vs. n-3 rich rapeseed oil in common commercial menus and to examine the effects on iron status and on blood FA pattern respectively as primary outcome variables in a double-blinded randomized controlled intervention trial (RCT).

Inclusion criteria

• a term healthy newborn infant (birth weight > 2500 g, gestational age > 37 weeks);
• inclusion during the first two months of life.
• German speaking mother;
• the intention of the mother to breast-feed the child and to feed study menus 5 to 7 times per week beginning in the fifth to seventh month of life.

Exclusion criteria

• preterm infants