Effects of vitamin B6 intake on nutriture and growth of young infants

Abstract

Vitamin B6 is critical to normal development; however, the requirement for adequate nutriture of the human infant is based on limited experimental data. In this study vitamin B6 intakes of breast-fed (BF) and formula-fed (FF), healthy, term infants were related to levels of pyridoxal phosphate (PLP) in their plasma at 1, 2, 4, and 6 mo of age. Mothers of BF infants were supplemented with either 2.5 or 15.0 mg pyridoxine . hydrochloride (PN . HCl)/d. Growth was similar for FF and BF infants and was within normal ranges over the 6 mo period. Plasma PLP in cord blood was similar in BF and FF infants; however, at 1-5 d of age and at each subsequent age studied, levels of plasma PLP were significantly higher in FF infants than in BF. Lowest PLP values were for BF infants of mothers who received 2.5 mg PN . HCl/d. Mean plasma PLP decreased with age and was not correlated to vitamin B6 intakes except at 1 mo of age. At this age, vitamin B6 intake of BF infants whose mothers received 2.5 mg PN . HCl/d was only 0.1 mg B6/d. The consequences of this are uncertain; however, plasma PLP levels of the infants were low and reflected their intakes of vitamin B6.

Vitamin B6 Status of Breast-Fed Infants in Relation to Pyridoxine HCl Supplementation of Mothers.

“…1). This range is comparable to previous reports of 600 to 900mL/d from other studies (13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19).…”

“…The age of birth weight doubling was highly correlated with birth weight. Thus the age of birth-weight doubling was re lated primarily to the size of the infant at birth (13,27). Convulsions resulting from exogenous vitamin B6 defi ciency has been observed in infants fed a cow-milk based formula that contained less than 0.1mg/d of vi tamin B6 (28).…”

Direct and Functional Biomarkers of Vitamin B6 Status

“…Yet, infants still have up to 2–6 times higher plasma PLP levels than adults despite (human milk fed babies) having elevated ALP (21) <- (20). After 6 months of age, plasma PLP declines toward adult levels independent of vitamin B6 intake (21). …”

Dietary Reference Values for vitamin B6

“…The concentration of vitamin B6 in breast milk is low during the first 1–2 weeks post‐partum, but gradually increases with the progression of lactation (Moser‐Veillon and Reynolds, ). This concentration also fluctuates with maternal dietary intake or supplementation (Styslinger and Kirksey, ; Borschel et al., ; Chang and Kirksey, , ; Moser‐Veillon and Reynolds, ; Lovelady et al., ). After maternal supplementation with 2.5, 4.0, 7.5 and 10 mg/day PN‐HCl during the first 6 months of lactation, mean concentration of vitamin B6 in breast milk was significantly lower (p < 0.05) with the supplementation of 2.5 mg/day than with higher doses (Chang and Kirksey, ).…”

“…In some studies, infants were full‐term (Styslinger and Kirksey, ; Borschel et al., ; Kang‐Yoon et al., , ; Lovelady et al., ; Boylan et al., ). In the other studies, no information was provided on whether the infants were born at term or not, but a few of them gave some indications about the anthropometry of the infants (Andon et al., ; Chang and Kirksey, ).…”