METABOLISM OF UNDERNOURISHED CHILDREN

Abstract

During the course of our study on the effect of high and low protein diets on the nitrogen and caloric balance of undernourished children, determinations of the creatine, creatinine and ammonia outputs have also been made. A perusal of the literature revealed that no similar studies on undernourished children have been reported. EXPERIMENTAL WORK Forty experiments of a minimum of three days each were conducted on eight normal and ten underweight children between the ages of 4 and 12 years. All but three of the children were girls. The high protein diet consisted of approximately 4 Gm. of protein per kilogram of body weight and included about 50 Gm. of meat daily, the rest of the protein being supplied by milk and eggs. The low protein diet was low only by comparison, since it contained about 2 Gm. of protein per kilogram of body weight, which is considered a safe