Growth, body composition and breast milk intake of Swedish infants during early life.

The growth and breast milk intake of 22 healthy completely breast fed Swedish infants (9 girls, 13 boys) during the first 10 wk of life are reported and were found to be similar to those of other healthy breast fed populations of infants. Also the body composition (body fat and lean body tissue) was estimated by an anthropometric method at the age of about 10 and 65 days. It was found that the breast milk intake correlated significantly with weight and fat gain but not with gain in lean body tissue or with gain in length. These findings suggest that energy rather than protein intake limited growth in this group of infants. Also the results confirm the fact that the capacity for fat retention is high during early life and show that the size of fat stores is related to breast milk intake.