[Vitamin E supply in full-term and premature newborns who received different types of nutrition]

The authors followed up 20 full-term and 52 premature neonates given breast milk and substitutes differing in the character of the fatty component: "Malyutka", "Malyutka with a new fatty composition", and "similac". In the full-term children, the level of vitamin E in the blood serum was higher than that in the premature children and remained greater whatever the type of feeding. In the premature children, the tocopherol content in the blood serum depended on the child's age and was higher in children of a 36-37 week gestation age. Both the full-term and premature children showed sufficient supply with vitamin E during natural feeding and during feeding with "Similac" and "Malyutka" mixtures. Upon feeding with a "Malyutka with a new fatty composition" all the neonates had a lower content of vitamin E in the blood serum as compared to that in children given a different type of feeding. This is likely to be related to the high content of polyunsaturated fatty acids and to a relatively little content of vitamin E in the mixture under consideration.