Infant feeding and growth of Chinese infants: birth to 2 years.

A cohort of 174 healthy full-term Chinese infants was followed up regularly for 2 years for their weight, length, head circumference, triceps and subscapular skinfold thickness, and their feeding practice. The majority of babies (92% at 2 months) were bottle fed with full strength infant formula. The energy intake over the first year of life was comparable with that of healthy Caucasian infants. The mean protein intake during the weaning period exceeded fourfold that of the WHO recommendation. At 2 years, infants were -0.6 standard deviation score (SDS) lighter and -0.4 SDS shorter than the National Centre for Health Statistics (NCHS) reference.