Composition of weight gain by Kenyan children during recovery from measles

The pattern and composition of weight change in 19 Kenyan children convalescing from measles, while eating a traditional diet at home, was investigated by serial anthropometry. The majority of children gained weight satisfactorily, 9 (47 per cent) quadrupling the reference rates of weight gain during this period, although 4 remained severely underweight throughout the study. The significant mean improvement in nutritional status, estimated by weight/length, was the result of weight gain accompanied by faltering in linear growth. Rapid weight gain was characterized by an early increase in the fat-free weight and a later rise in subcutaneous fat weight, similar to that shown in children recovering from malnutrition. Children who gained weight poorly demonstrated alternate spurts of weight gain and weight loss. Poor weight gain was significantly (P less than 0.05) associated with anorexia and with diarrhoea. Nutritional and metabolic factors influencing the pattern of weight gain and linear growth after infection are discussed.