Caloric and Protein Requirements and Basal Metabolism of Children From Four to Fourteen Years Old

The existing data on the food requirements of children were reviewed and summarized by the Committee on Growth and Development of the White House Conference on Child Health and Protection in 1932.1Since then two reports2have appeared on American girls from 6 to 16 years of age and a third3on a group of 206 children of both sexes from 2 to 11 years old. The present report on 14 boys and 13 girls is placed on record as representing comparatively long periods of observation (averaging about nine months), with parallel observations of the basal metabolism and the nitrogen balance and with variations in the protein intake, the other variables in the food mixture being controlled. The study extended over four years and included 56 children, the records for 29 of whom were excluded from this report because of infections or abnormalities in metabolism or nutrition.