Folate nutrition is optimal in exclusively breast-fed infants but inadequate in some of their mothers and in formula-fed infants.
Plasma concentrations of folate were studied in a group of exclusively breast-fed infants and their mothers (their numbers gradually decreased from 200 at birth to 7 at 12 months) and in infants completely weaned to a cow's milk formula (containing 35 micrograms of folate/L) and solid foods. The exclusively breast-fed infants were in no danger of folate deficiency; their plasma levels were elevated after the age of 2 months and, on average, were 2.0-3.3-fold higher than maternal levels throughout the study. None of these infants had an inadequate plasma concentration, whereas up to 5% of the mothers had values less than or equal to 3 micrograms/L, despite supplementation during lactation with 0.1 mg folate/day. In the formula-fed infants, 69-94% of the plasma folate concentrations lay below the lowest concentration for the breast-fed infants. Although no infant had signs of anemia or macrocytosis in red cell indices, the infants weaned earliest had the lowest hemoglobin concentrations (p = 0.09) and the highest mean corpuscular volume (MCV) values (p = 0.06) at 9 months of age. Thus, an infant fed a formula containing the recommended amount of folate runs a risk of folate deficiency.
D000367:Age Factors; D000818:Animals; D001903:Bottle Feeding; D001942:Breast Feeding; D002417:Cattle; D005260:Female; D005492:Folic Acid / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000097:blood*; D005494:Folic Acid Deficiency / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007225:Infant Food; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D008892:Milk; D013997:Time Factors
D005492:Folic Acid