Gastric Emptying in Infants Fed Human Milk or Infant Formula

ABSTRACT. Cavell, B. (Department of Paediatrics, University Hospital, Lund, Sweden). Gastric emptying in infants fed human milk or infant formula. Acta Paediatr Scand, 70:639,.–Gastric emptying of meals of human milk or infant formula was studied in 17 healthy infants aged 4 weeks to 6 months using a marker dilution technique. In the 24 studies performed gastric emptying followed a hiphasic pattern in 11 and a linear pattern in 12 studies. The average gastric half‐emptying time for meals of human milk was 48 min, and for meals of infant formula 78 min. After 1 hour an average of 29.5 ml of human milk and 22.7 ml of infant formula per 0.1 m 2 of body surface area had emptied from the stomach.