Data were collected on 335 infants from birth to age two years whose families were all subscribers to a prepaid medical care plan. Birth weights were not significantly different by race or gender. Doubling time (DT) was significantly later than that reported in the mid-70s. Tripling time (TT) was significantly later than that calculated from the National Center for Health Statistics growth charts. Birth weight was the most significant factor for both DT and TT. Gender significantly affected DT only. Race was directly significant only for DT, but became significant for DT and TT when adjusted for gender and type of feeding. Type of feeding was not significant. The group which tripled birth weight the earliest had a higher percentage of fatter infants and suggest early TT may be useful to indicate infants at risk for obesity.

This study was designed to ascertain some nutrition and nutrition related social factors in the environment of the child with anemia. In this study, it was found that the child with iron deficiency anemia consumed less iron per kilogram per day, drank more milk, was less likely to have been given supplemental iron, was introduced to strained foods at an older age, and had a greater number of siblings. The mother was more likely to be separated or divorced, view the child as having more feeding problems and be an inappropriate weight for age, have somewhat different expectations of his ability to perform certain tasks, and be, in general, less satisfied with the child. The family group spent less per capita on food and cared for the child in the home more of the time. A better understanding of these factors, important in the development of iron deficiency anemia, may eventually lead to amelioration of the problem.

No abstract

Growing female rats were fed diets containing either corn oil (CO) or cottonseed oil (CSO) to determine if the previously reported lowering effect of CSO versus CO on serum total cholesterol (TC) and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) was sex specific and to compare the effect of these two oils on serum and tissue concentrations of RRR-alpha-tocopherol (alpha-T) and RRR-gamma-tocopherol (gamma-T), the two major tocopherols in these oils. In a 4-week study, groups of rats (n = 10 each) were fed diets containing 100 g/kg of either CO or CSO. TC was lower for group CSO than group CO. Serum concentrations of HDL-C, non-HDL-C, triglycerides (TGs), as well as the TC/ HDL-C ratio and the hepatic concentrations of cholesterol and TGs, were unaffected by diet. For serum and liver, between-group differences were noted for the concentrations of alpha-T (where values were higher for group CSO) and gamma-T (where values were lower for group CSO). These differences reflected differences between the oils in their concentrations of these tocopherols. Thus, CSO has a lowering effect on TC for both sexes, but on HDL-C for male animals only; replacement of CO with CSO results in changes in tocopherol status.

No abstract