Twenty infants were studied (13 male and 7
female), as part of a longitudinal investi gation on maternal nutrition and
lactation. All were breast-fed up to the sixth month, and 16 were still being
breast-fed by the end of the seventh month. Fifteen of the mothers were
recruited through the Cambridge Maternity Hospital, and five via the National
The babies' weights, lengths (using a
Harpenden Infant Measuring Table), and triceps skin-fold thicknesses (using
Holtain callipers) were measured at monthly intervals.
3. Dietary Intakes
From four weeks of age, breast-milk
intakes were measured in the home on four consecutive days each month by
test-weighing, using Salter Baby weigher Model 40 Scales, after the mothers had
received careful instruction in this technique. All other food and drink,
including medicaments such as gripe water and "vitamin syrups," were
also quantitatively recorded by the mothers for the same four days. First,
supplementary foods introduced were usually proprietary cereal preparations,
"baby dinners," or foods from the rest of the family's supply; infant
formulas based on cow's milk were never given. Energy intakes were calculated
using food composition tables and from information provided by manufacturers.
The energy content of breast milk was taken to be 69 kcal/100 9, the average
value found in a recent national survey of British mothers'milk.
FIG. 1. Total Energy Intake of 20 Babies Compared
with the Recommendations of WHO/FAD and the United Kingdom's DHSS (Values are