Faltering in infant growth in Khartoum province, Sudan.

Four hundred babies were recruited at birth and visited at intervals of 2 weeks. At each visit weight, length and morbidity were recorded. Growth in weight and length began to fall below the international reference by 5 months. 'Faltering' was defined as a weight gain less than the reference -1 s.d. for two consecutive 2-week periods. Fifty per cent of children had begun to falter by 16 weeks. Initially almost all the children were exclusively breast-fed. The mothers were neither encouraged nor discouraged from introducing supplementary food; 50 per cent had done so by 16 weeks. There were only minor differences in attained weight, length, weight gain and length gain between supplemented and unsupplemented children. The results emphasize the wide variability in this population both in feeding patterns and in growth from period to period. Although the average outcome was satisfactory, this average conceals a minority whose growth was unacceptably low.