Zinc Helps Preemies
LA LEGUNA, Spain (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Giving extra zinc to premature infants helps them grow, report researchers from Spain in the journal Pediatrics.
Premature birth is often associated with inadequate nutritional intake and impaired growth. Malnutrition, and specifically zinc deficiency, can disrupt the various hormones and growth factors that are responsible for normal growth. Therefore, researchers hypothesized that zinc supplementation may increase the growth of preemies.
The study evaluated 36 preterm infants. The infants were randomly assigned to a group fed standard formula supplemented with zinc and a small quantity of copper or a group fed standard formula alone. Researchers examined body length, weight, head size, and total body water.
Alejandro Jimenez, Ph.D., senior study author, reports babies in the zinc supplementation group had significantly greater linear growth up until 6 months of age. These babies also had greater weight and head size, although these data were not statistically significant. The authors conclude that zinc supplementation has a positive effect on growth in premature babies.
Other researchers maintain that the zinc concentration in standard formulas currently used to feed preterm infants after discharge may be insufficient. "This could be related, in part, to the poor growth and development described for many premature infants," writes Jimenez.
The absorption of zinc contained in human milk is 30-percent higher than the absorption in formula, thereby placing formula fed infants at a higher risk for zinc deficiency.
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SOURCE: Pediatrics, 2003;111:1002-1009
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