NUTRITION OF CHILDREN 591 



Human milk contains more Albumin and much less Casein than cow's 

 milk. This may be only one among many reasons, not readily deter- 

 minable by analysis, why Artificially-fed Infants rarely thrive as well 

 as breast-fed infants. This fact, which has so often been demonstrated 

 and in such a diversity of ways, may be illustrated by the following 

 tabular comparison of the growth of South Australian male infants 

 which were in every respect normal, but which in the one group were 

 fed for at least the first few weeks at the breast, while in the other group 

 modified cow's milk was the source of nutriment: 



Average weight in ounces of 

 South Australian male infants. 



The nutritional requirements of children are much greater in pro- 

 portion to their weight than those of adults. The heat-production of 

 infants at various ages is thus summarized by Murlin: 



Heat production of infants recently fed 

 and sleeping. 



Calories per square- 

 Calories per kilo meter of surface 

 Age. and hour. and hour. 



Birth 1.87 25 



2 to 4 months 2.38 35 



6 to 12 months 2.45 42 



Underfed and atrophic infants produced more, and overweight 

 infants less than the heat-output of normal infants. It must be 

 remembered, however, that these figures are subject to considerable 

 modification by a variety of factors, among which Exercise, for example 

 crying, the type and quantity of Clothing worn and the Temperature 

 of the surrounding atmosphere are the most important. 



The Heat-production per kilo body- weight in an infant during the first 

 year is about 80 calories, while that of an adult does not exceed 36 

 calories per kilo. The heat-production of the Newborn Infant is much 

 less than at later months, in many cases not exceeding 48 calories per 

 kilo. The heat-production per square-meter of surface also rises during 

 the first year. The allowance of 100 calories per kilo which is adopted 

 by many physicians upon the basis of the older estimations of Heubner 

 is undoubtedly excessive for the average infant. Even taking 80 

 calories per kilo as a basis, however, the food required by an infant of 

 10 kilos at one year of age is one-third of that required by an adult 

 weighing seven times as much. 



This high food-requirement arises from three sources: Firstly the 

 high average Metabolic Rate and the high proportion of Parenchymatous 



