[Long-term effect of nutrition in early infancy]

Results of different studies performed in the last ten years stress the possibility that infant nutrition is the important determinant of later development, and that many adult chronic diseases may have the origins in the very first few years of life. According to the hypothesis of "long-term programming", if the lack of nutrients was present in the critical phase of human development it will have a long-lasting or permanent effect on the final outcome. This paper is the review of the latest findings and the present state of knowledge about the possible permanent influences of general undernourishment, lack of some nutrients and the type of infant nutrition on a) psychomotor development, b) development of chronic diseases in children, and c) development of chronic diseases in late adulthood.