Summary
A BMJ obituary recounts Alan Lucas’s 1982 multicentre trial of feeding in preterm infants and later follow-up research on development and health. It credits Lucas with coining “nutritional programming” for the idea that early nutrition can shape outcomes later in life.
A BMJ obituary published on 16 October 2026 recounts how researcher Alan Lucas investigated whether feeding in the first weeks of life could influence the later development and health of babies born prematurely. The obituary credits Lucas with coining the term “nutritional programming” for the idea that early nutrition can have effects beyond infancy.
Lucas’s research followed earlier animal experiments by Robert McCance and Elsie Widdowson, his colleagues at the MRC Dunn Nutrition Unit in Cambridge. He sought to examine the consequences of early nutrition in human infants as more premature babies survived advances in neonatal care.
The 1982 feeding trial
Lucas set up a multicentre trial in 1982 comparing growth, development and health outcomes among preterm infants who received different types of feeding. Researchers asked mothers about their feeding intentions. For infants whose mothers did not provide breast milk, the study randomly assigned babies to standard formula, unfortified donor breast milk or a specially designed, nutrient-rich preterm formula. A supplementary trial included infants whose mothers provided breast milk.
The obituary describes this as the first experiment to show that feeding choices for preterm babies in their first weeks could influence outcomes in infancy and beyond. The different trial groups matter: random allocation applied to infants whose mothers did not provide breast milk, while breastfed infants were included in a supplementary trial.
Follow-up beyond infancy
Some of the children were followed for years. The obituary says subsequent studies reported effects of early feeding on developmental outcomes, brain structure and cardiovascular health into adult life. This longer view is central to the idea of nutritional programming: nutrition during a sensitive early period may shape later outcomes, not just immediate growth.
The work shifted attention towards the potential long-term consequences of how premature infants are fed. It also connected neonatal nutrition research with questions about development and health across the life course. The BMJ account presents Lucas’s trial and its follow-up studies as foundational work in that field.