Humans seem to have a genetic target for growth -- a genetically-based "channel" or pattern of growth to which the child strives to match. Various environmental circumstances, both in utero and after birth, can lead the child to fall below *or above* the target channel that the genes are striving to match. Sometimes an environmental constraint -- such as a small mother/uterus before birth, or lack of food in infancy or lots of disease in infancy -- means that the child falls below their targeted channel. When the environmental constraint is removed -- such as being born removes the constraint of a too-small mother/uterus, or food becomes available or child grows old enough to demand more food or steal it from their younger siblings, etc., or the child survives all the viral diseases of early childhood and doesn't get sick so much anymore -- then you may see 'catch-up' growth where the child grows faster than typical for his/her age and may even overshoot the targeted growth channel. This is especially apparent with children who have growth hormone deficiency. Once they are diagnosed and started on treatments, they may grow as much as twice as fast the normal rate, as their body desperately tries to match up the child's current size with their genetic potential. Sometimes the environment contributes to overgrowth of the child in utero, often simply because the mother is large and so uterine size is not a constraint. The baby is born larger than its genetic targeted size, and you will then see 'catch-down' growth -- the baby grows more slowly than typical for its age, as it tries to 'catch down' to where it is supposed to be. This is also true for the child with hormone deficiency who grows super-fast and overshoots their target -- they may then drastically slow down their rate of growth, even below normal for their age, as they try to catch-down to where they are supposed to be. British auxologist (human growth specialist) James M. Tanner, wrote about both catch-up and catch-down growth in his many papers and books about human growth (search 1950-1990 for publication dates). Fetus Into Man is his classic human growth textbook, fondly known to generations of students as "Fetus Man". All of which is to say, that no, one shouldn't *necessarily* expect big babies to eat more than small babies. Big babies may eat even less than average size babies, as they 'catch-down' to their normal growth pattern. Also, while most intake calculations are based on kilo of body weight, human variation includes vast differences in metabolism and activity level, so that babies who weigh the same may need very different amounts of breast milk or formula to grow optimally, while two babies of very different sizes may need exactly the same. That is one reason why it is best to let the baby be the one to decide how much to eat, at the breast, rather than trying to use "one size fits all" calculations about so many ounces of formula per ounce of body weight. Kathy Dettwyler Specialist in child growth, among other things P.S. One anecdotal example using dogs. We had two litters of puppies born to our average-sized golden retriever female, Roxanne. The father of the puppies, Beau Geste, was a Great Pyrenees (giant white dog that looked like a polar bear). The puppies, at birth, were standard golden retriever puppy size, due to intra-uterine growth constraints. There were fewer puppies than a normal golden retriever litter, but more than a normal Great Pyrenees litter. Usually, Great Pyrenees puppies are quite large at birth, compared to golden retriever puppies. These cross-bred puppies were not intermediate in size at birth, they were golden retriever puppy-sized. The puppies grew at an *alarming* rate, so that by six weeks of age, standard weaning-and-giving-away time for puppies, they were about 1/3-1/2 the size of their mother, much larger than golden retriever puppies of that age. If she was standing up and they wanted to nurse, they had to duck down (which they did). She, in contrast, was a mere shadow of her former self, as she turned all her body weight into milk for those puppies. It took her about six months to recover her normal body weight after the last of the puppies weaned. As adults, the puppies ended up in size anywhere from smaller than their mother (the largest puppy at birth) to bigger than their father (the smallest puppy at birth). Most were in-between the parents in size. _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com *********************************************** The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html