Don't Restrict Youngsters' Fat Intake.

Bruce Watkins, professor of lipid chemistry and metabolism, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind., and Bernhard Hennig, professor of cell nutrition, University of Kentucky, Lexington, say that youngsters under five are getting too little fat in their diets. They maintain that restricted fat intake in children reduces growth and visual acuity and limits mental development. "For example, omega-3 fatty acids--which come from fish and certain plant oils--are crucial for brain development and for development of the retina," Watkins points out.

Health organizations--including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Heart Association, and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute--have made recommendations to limit dietary fat intake for individuals more than two years old. The Federal government's 1995 Dietary Guidelines, produced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, recommend that fat intake be restricted in children beginning at age two.

Watkins and Hennig, however, maintain that fat should not be restricted until five years of age, and then reduced gradually throughout childhood and teen years. They caution that limiting dietary fat to less than 30% of total calories in young children may reduce growth and lead to nutritional shortages.

The relative low-fat nature of infant formula is a special concern. "Certain fatty acids are found only in human milk. They are not found in sufficient amounts in infant formulas," Hennig notes. "The companies that make the formula should...