SUMMARY Energy balance, nitrogen balance, and growth studies were done in 37 preterm infants (20 of very low birthweight) who were fed on expressed breast milk or on one of 3 formulae each of different composition, including a special premature formula and a highly adapted 'humanised' formula. The variability of breast milk composition was such that it would have been difficult to predict the infants' protein and energy intakes under normal nursing conditions. All measured parameters of nutritional performance were best in infants fed on the 'premature' formula and were reflected in greater weight gain, linear growth, and head growth. The nitrogen balance data suggest that the highly adapted formula, which had a protein content comparable with that of mature human milk, contained too little protein for small preterm infants.

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Young children respond to energy dilution achieved using fat or sugar substitutes by compensating for reduced energy within a single meal. The ability to respond to energy dilution in the short term may diminish with age, since adults do not reliably demonstrate accurate caloric compensation in the short term. Two experiments were conducted to examine caloric compensation across age groups. In Experiment 1,15 young children (2-5 years) and 10 older children (7-10 years) received regular (100 g: 73 kcal) and low-calorie (100 g: 6 kcal) raspberry gelatin dessert as a mid-morning snack on two test days separated by at least 2 weeks. Young children demonstrated caloric compensation by consuming more following the low-calorie snack (571.3 ± 48.8 kcal) than after the regular snack (487.7 ± 31.5 kcal). Older children failed to adjust intake in response to the difference in energy. In Experiment 2, a similar procedure was used but young children (n = 19) received 150 g of raspberry gelatin dessert (9 kcal vs. 109 kcal) and older children (n = 12) received 225 g of gelatin dessert (13 kcal vs. 164 kcal). The compensation index (COMPX) indicated that young children (88.1 ± 22.4%) compensated better than older children (21.5 ± 21.9%). Short-term caloric compensation may diminish with age, possibly reflecting a transition from using unlearned internal cues to a more adult pattern of eating influenced by external cues and learning.

The prevalence and correlates of psychological distress were examined in a sample of 171 female sex workers in Queensland. It was found that

Questions about the adaptive importance of metabolic rate can be approached only when measurements of differences between individuals are repeatable. We made daily measurements of CO(2) production, body mass, and food uptake over the adult life span of unmated Vanessa cardui kept under constant environmental conditions in both fed and unfed treatments. Mass and CO(2) production generally declined with age in both treatments, though with much day-to-day variability in the fed treatment. For the full samples, metabolic rate was repeatable for the unfed treatment (repeatability r = 0.60) but not for the fed treatment (r = 0.03). Differences between fed and unfed individuals of the same age range were repeatable for the unfed treatment (r = 0.39) but not for the fed treatment (r = -0.20). Removing age effects on CO(2) production yielded still higher repeatability in the unfed treatment (r = 0.83), though not in fed butterflies of the same age range (r = -0.02). However, repeatability of CO(2) production of fed butterflies increased sharply with age, rising to 0.82 for butterflies age 8-10 d. Although food uptake mass was repeatable (r = 0.52), feeding history explained little variation in CO(2) production. We conclude that for V. cardui and possibly for other insects of similar feeding habit, variation in metabolic rate between individuals is best represented by measurements of unfed individuals of the same age or of older fed individuals.