Relationship between birth weight and zinc status of newly born infants and their mothers.

Zinc deficiency during pregnancy has been reported to retard foetal growth and to cause chromosomal aberretioas and various congenital defects in animals (I, 2, 3). Recently, low birth' weight (LBW) infants and their mothers were reported to have lower serum zinc levels as compared to controls (4). This has, however, been contradicted by other workers (5, 6). The present investigation was, therefore, undertaken to try and resolve this controversy.