Diet of babies linked to diabetes risk

Premature babies given a nutrient-enriched diet designed to help them catch up to their full term peers appear to be more likely to have a pre-diabetic condition in adolescence, as recently reported by researchers. Standard feeding practices for premature infants consisted of unsupplemented breast milk and standard, non-enriched infant formula. Currently, premature babies are given a nutrient-enriched form of infant formula to spur their growth. Researchers at the Institute of Child Health in London in their study measured fasting levels of the substance 32-33 split proinsulin in the blood of 216 teens born prematurely and 61 of their peers, who were born full-term. They found that teens born prematurely who received the enriched diet tended to show higher levels of proinsulin than teens born prematurely who received a standard, non-enriched diet during the first weeks of life. Teens who gained weight in the first two weeks of life more rapidly than others, regardless of whether or not they were born prematurely, were also more likely to have high proinsulin levels. Levels of proinsulin in teens who consumed an enriched diet while premature, matched those in teens who were born full-term. Just why rapid growth in the first weeks of life in premature infants might increase the risk of insulin resistance (the efficacy of insulin gets blunted), and possibly diabetes later in life, still remains unclear.

However, the current findings emphasise the risks of feeding premature infants too much. It is important not to advocate restricting diet in infancy but over-feeding should be avoided. The infant should grow at a steady but not excessive rate in the first weeks. The results suggest that relative under nutrition early in life in children born prematurely may have beneficial effects on insulin resistance.

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