Neonatal weight changes of 400 normal infants were studied statistically. The series was composed of 200 infants fed on a flexible schedule of which 100 were breast-fed and 100 were bottle-fed; and 200 infants fed on the conventional four-hour schedule, of which 100 were breast-fed and 100 were bottle-fed. During the first week of life the ad lib-fed babies had smaller weight losses than the schedule-fed babies and the bottle-fed babies had smaller losses than the breast-fed babies. The duration of weight loss was longer in the breast-fed babies. By the time of the six week postnatal clinic visit, the group that had been breast-fed in the nursery had gained significantly more than the group that had been bottle-fed in the nursery. There were otherwise among the four groups no significant differences in weight gain during this period. It was felt that the observed differences among the four groups parallelled the expected differences in food intake.
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