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Healthy infant growth: what are the trade-offs in the developed world?

Mandy B Belfort1, Matthew W Gillman

  • 1Division of Newborn Medicine, Children's Hospital Boston, Boston, MA, USA.

Nestle Nutrition Institute Workshop Series
|March 19, 2013
PubMed

Insights

Rapid infant weight gain offers neurodevelopmental benefits but risks later obesity and high blood pressure. Optimal growth balances these, varying by infant population, especially for preterm and full-term SGA infants.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatrics
  • Neonatology
  • Developmental Pediatrics

Background:

  • Rapid infant weight gain presents a complex balance of potential long-term benefits and harms.
  • Associations differ significantly across infant populations, including healthy full-term, preterm, and small for gestational age (SGA) infants.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To analyze the nuanced relationship between infant weight gain patterns and subsequent neurodevelopmental and cardiometabolic outcomes.
  • To differentiate the effects of weight gain proportional to linear growth versus excessive weight gain in specific infant cohorts.

Main Methods:

  • Review and synthesis of existing research on infant weight gain and associated health outcomes.
  • Population-specific analysis of weight-for-length gain in healthy term, preterm, and SGA infants.

Main Results:

  • Healthy term infants show no neurodevelopmental benefit from weight-for-length gain, but increased risk of obesity and adverse cardiometabolic outcomes.
  • Preterm infants demonstrate significant neurodevelopmental advantages from neonatal weight-for-length gain, with potential long-term cardiometabolic risks from excess gain.
  • Full-term SGA infants show limited evidence; excess weight gain may increase cardiometabolic risk without impacting neurodevelopment.

Conclusions:

  • Optimal infant weight gain strategies must be population-specific, weighing neurodevelopmental benefits against cardiometabolic risks.
  • Further research is needed to identify determinants of early weight gain and to distinguish proportional from excessive growth effects.

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