CUERNAVACA, Mexico--Based on the hypothesis that micronutrient
deficiencies retard infant growth, researchers here studied infants (8 to 14
months) to ascertain whether a multivitamin supplement could enhance growth.
Infants were randomly assigned to placebo and supplement groups, with the
supplement group receiving a multivitamin that contained vitamins A, D, E, K, C,
B1, B6 and B12, riboflavin, niacin, biotin, folic acid, pantothenic acid, iron,
zinc, iodine, copper, manganese and selenium.
After taking supplements six times per day for an average of 12.2 months, the
infants in the supplement group who were less than 12 months old grew in length
significantly more than the placebo group. However, this increased growth was
not noted in infants who were older than one year. Researchers concluded that
improving micronutrient intakes should promote growth in nutrient-deficient
infants (Am J Clin Nutr, 74,5:657-63, 2001) (www.ajcn.org).
In a similar study (J Nutrition, 131:2860-65, 2001) (www.nutrition.org),
478 Indonesian infants were studied to determine how supplementation of iron and
zinc, alone or combined, would affect growth. Four groups of children were
supplemented for six months with iron (10 mg/d), zinc (10 mg/d), iron and zinc,
or placebo. While researchers learned that iron plus zinc supplementation
reduced the prevalence of anemia more effectively than iron alone, there was no
noted difference between the groups in terms of growth.
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