A Comparison of the Zinc, Copper and Manganese Status of Very Low Birth Weight Pre‐Term and Full‐Term Infants during the First Twelve Months

During a longitudinal study, hair samples and dietary intake data were collected from 50 pre-term (mean birth weight = 1054 +/- 234 g, mean gestational age = 29 +/- 2.5 weeks) and 60 full-term infants (mean birth weight = 3509 +/- 269 g, mean gestational age = 40 +/- 1 weeks) at 3, 6 and 12 months of age. Mean daily zinc, copper and manganese intakes were calculated using three-day dietary records and test-weight data for the breast-fed …