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Energy expenditure in early infancy
1MRC Dunn Nutrition Unit, Cambridge.
Insights
This study measured total energy expenditure in infants using the doubly-labeled water technique. Findings provide new data on infant energy needs and metabolism, crucial for clinical and scientific research.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Nutrition
- Human Metabolism
- Biomedical Research
Background:
- Measuring infant energy expenditure is vital but challenging.
- Previous methods had ethical and practical limitations.
- The doubly-labeled water technique is now validated for infants.
Purpose of the Study:
- To non-invasively measure total energy expenditure in healthy infants.
- To establish centiles for energy expenditure in early infancy.
- To inform re-evaluation of infant energy requirements and study metabolic diseases.
Main Methods:
- Utilized the doubly-labeled water technique.
- Measured 41 normal, full-term infants.
- Data collected at approximately 1.5, 3, and 6 months of age.
Main Results:
- Mean total energy expenditure was 270, 280, and 330 kJ/kg/day at 1.5, 3, and 6 months, respectively.
- Presented centiles for total energy expenditure in early infancy.
- Suggested expressing data as kJ/sqrt(kg body-weight/day) is most appropriate.
Conclusions:
- Established non-invasive measurements of total energy expenditure in infancy.
- Provides essential data for understanding infant energy requirements.
- Supports further research into infant metabolic disorders.
Abstract:
The measurement of energy expenditure has wide applications in clinical and scientific studies. Ethical and practical problems, however, have limited the acquisition of information on total energy expenditure in infancy. The doubly-labelled-water technique, recently validated for use in infants, has now been used to measure, non-invasively, total energy expenditure in a cohort of forty-one normal, full-term infants at or close to 1.5, 3 and 6 months of age. Mean total energy expenditure was 270, 280 and 330 kJ/kg per d at these ages. Centiles for total energy expenditure in early infancy are presented; it is suggested such data are most appropriately expressed as kJ/square root (kg body-weight per d). These findings will be of importance in the re-evaluation of energy requirements in infancy and in the study of lesions in energy metabolism in disease states at this age.