Abstract
Breast milk is the best source of nutrition for infant growth and development. Breast feeding an infant is not always possible because have insufficient in quantity of breast milk or social conditions. In such a case, infant formula sufficient for growth and development must be used. Large amounts of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), i.e., linoleic acid, arachidonic acid, alfa-liolenic acid, eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) are present in breast milk. Infant formula well-balanced in essential fatty acids was produced subsequent to demonstrating the need for alfa-liolenic acid.
DHA-fortified infant formula was recently been developed to provide DHA equivalent to that in Japanese human milk, because DHA is essential to development of the neonatal brain and retina. Visual acuity and/or visual evoked potential assessed the significance of PUFA for term infants. The results were compared with the learning ability of rats.
