A longitudinal study of nutrition and growth of infants initially on the upper and lower centile for weight and age.

Twenty-four infants, initially either above the 90th centile or below the 10th centile weight for age for sex, were enrolled in an 18-month-longitudinal study. They were all under one year of age at the first survey. On four consecutive occasions, separated by six month intervals, 7-d weighed food intakes were measured together with random duplicate samples of a 24-h food intake. In addition, various anthropometric data were collected at each survey. Although the two groups of children remained different in terms of body size and skinfold measurements throughout the study, there were no differences in energy or protein intakes (per caput or per kg body weight) at any survey. We conclude that factors other than simple food intake are more important in determining the body size of pre-school children and suggest that these factors could include components of energy expenditure.