Society (Health Canada, 1990), by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP, 1997), and in the Food and Nutrition Board report Nutrition During Lactation (IOM, 1991).

In general, special consideration was not given to possible variations in physiological need during the first month after birth or to the variations in intake of nutrients from human milk that result from differences in milk volume and nutrient concentration during early lactation. Specific recommended intakes to meet the needs of formula-fed infants are not proposed in this report. The previously published RDAs and RNIs for infants have led to much misinterpretation of the adequacy of human milk because of a lack of understanding about their derivation for young infants. Although they were based on human milk composition and volume of intake, the previous RDA and RNI values allowed for lower bioavailability of nutrients from nonhuman milk.

Ages 0 Through 6 Months. To derive the AI value for infants ages 0 through 6 months, the mean intake of a nutrient was calculated on the basis of the average concentration of the nutrient from 2 through 6 months of lactation with use of consensus values for the nutrient from several reported studies (Atkinson et al., 1995), and an estimated average volume of milk intake of 0.78 L/day as reported from studies of full-term infants by test weighing, a procedure in which the infant is weighed before and after each feeding (Butte et al., 1984; Chandra, 1984; Hofvander et al., 1982; Neville et al., 1988). Because there is variation in both of these measures, the computed value represents the mean. It is expected that infants will consume increased volumes of human milk as they grow.

Ages 7 Through 12 Months. Except for some nutrients such as iron and zinc, for which infants have relatively high requirements, there is no evidence for markedly different nutrient needs during the period of infants’ slower growth and gradual weaning to a mixed diet of human milk and solid foods from ages 7 through 12 months. The basis of the AI values derived for this age category was the sum of the specific nutrient provided by 0.6 L/day of human milk, which is the average volume of milk reported from studies in this age category (Heinig et al., 1993), and those provided by the usual intakes of complementary weaning foods consumed by infants of this age (Specker et al., 1997). This approach is in keeping with the current recommendations of the Canadian Paediatric Society (Health Canada, 1990), the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP, 1997), and Nutrition During Lactation (IOM,