Relationship between maternal and infant nutrition. The special role of fat in energy transfer.

Conception does not take place unless there is a certain guaranteed energy reserve in the mother as fat stores. In the well nourished pregnant mother, energy reserves are built up in advance of the fetal growth thurst and part of these are transferred to the fetus to buffer the risks associated with birth and the perinatal period. A significant proportion of the maternal energy reserves act as a guarantee for lactation which imposes the highest dietary energy demand of the life cycle. Again, in the well nourished mother there will be a transfer of energy to the infant which will again buffer the weaning period when the infant changes from the energy dense milk to foods with low energy densities. Malnutrition and undernutrition is not simply the result of poor infant feeding or the events that occur at the time. It is more likely that the case of mortality and morbidity from malnutrition includes a failure during the reproductive process to provide the necessary reserves for fetal energy stores and for the perinatal and weaning periods. That is infant malnutrition stems from the relationship between maternal and infant nutrition. This analysis leads to the proposal that preventive measures need to include maternal nutrition and to increase the level of fat consumption. In developing countries the energy density of the carbohydrate rich diets may be too low to meet the energy demands for early growth and development. This problem will not be solved by simply supplying more of the same kind of food but may require an increase in the energy density of the food. One way by which this can be done is by increasing the fat intake which dramatically increases the energy intake without expanding the volume of food eaten.