THE RESPIRATORY METABOLISM IN INFANCY AND IN CHILDHOOD

Abstract

INTRODUCTION Ketosis is a common event during childhood. Acetone bodies usually appear in the urine and breath of children following operative procedures; they frequently accompany acute infections, and their presence may readily be induced by fasting and by low carbohydrate, high fat diets. This tendency is accentuated in a specific group of children, some of whom develop so-called "cyclic vomiting." Measurements of the respiratory exchange of children in ketosis are not available in the literature. We are, therefore, presenting data on six children which correlate the ketogenic balance of the metabolized foodstuffs, as determined in the respiration chamber, with the excretion of ketone bodies in the urine. Various degrees of ketosis were induced by fasting and by diets containing progressively increasing proportions of fat to carbohydrate. The dietary group of experiments was also made use of to compare the foodstuffs ingested with the foodstuffs metabolized. The investigation is concerned specifically