American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol 26, 631-639, Copyright © 1973 by The American Society for Clinical Nutrition, Inc.

Food intake and rate of weight gain in two healthy breast-fed infants

¹ From the Department of Human Nutrition, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street (Gower Street) London WC1E 7HT, England

1) Serial measurements of the body weight and milk intake of two healthy breast-fed infants have been used to test the predictive value of the Miller and Payne equations, which relate weight gain to nitrogen or energy intake. Samples of breast milk and other foods have been chemically analyzed.

2) The nitrogen content of hind breast milk fell from 1.4% in early lactation to 0.9% by the 10th week. The protein/energy ratio (protein/calories percent) fell from 9 to 5%.

3) The nitrogen intakes of the infants were generally less than the FAO recommended allowances.

4) When the rate of weight gain of the infants was predicted from nitrogen intakes week by week, there were considerable random deviations of real from predicted weight gain over 3-week periods.

5) Taking the measurement period as a whole, the equation gave good predictions of the weight gain of the infants. This points to the possibility of using an integrated form of the growth equations to make comparisons between the growth patterns of individuals and groups with different dietary intakes and genetic growth potentials.