THE BASAL METABOLISM OF UNDERWEIGHT CHILDREN

Abstract

Benedict and Tafbot's monograph (1) has given a large amount of material on the basal metabolism of children with which subsequent data can well be compared.It, includes not only their own extensive series of observations but also a summary and criticism of earlier work.Their own observations are chiefly on normal children-children in good general health and approximately of the average weight, for their height, Very little has been published on the basal metabolism of underweight children.Some of the infants observed by Benedict and Talbot (2) were underweight, and in general' showed a higher basal metabolism per kilo or per square meter than well nourished children.This difference was assigned by the investigators to a smaller proportion of fat and a larger proportion of active protoplasmic tissue in the underweight infants.Murlin and Hoobler (3), who in 1915 @blished 'observations on 10 infants varying in age from 2 to 12 months, also found that the underweight infants had a higher metabolism per kilo and per square meter than the normal or fat ones.Murlin and Hoobler compare their own series 'with one by Howland, and with Benedict and Talbot's; and they find that all but three of the forty-eight underweight and atrophic infants had a higher basal metabolism than the eighteen normal infants.Of the five overweight infants all but one had a lower basal metabolism than the normal ones.On the other hand, a group of young men who were studied by Benedict and others (4) during a prolonged period of underfeeding showed a basal metabolism progressively lower as their underfeeding continued.It was diminished whether expressed as total calories, calories per kilo, or calories per square meter.