Is There an Excess of Saturated Fat in Infant Formula?

To the Editor.—  Recommendation No. 3 from the consensus conference on Lowering Blood Cholesterol to Prevent Heart Disease¹ states: "All Americans (except children younger than 2 years of age) should be advised to adopt a diet that... reduces saturated fat intake to less than 10% of total calories."We asked the consensus conference panel why they did not include children younger than 2 years of age in their recommendation to limit the intake of saturated fat. Three panel members felt that there was insufficient direct evidence that a reduced saturated fat intake would be without hazard to normal growth and development in the very young child, whose cholesterol level is usually very low (written communications, December 1984, January 1985, February 1985).Just six months before this recommendation, a major US manufacturer came out with an "improved" infant formula that increased the coconut oil contribution from its previous concentration of 20%