Protein and Amino Acid Requirements in Early Life.

Abstract

Pediatricians and nutritionists will find this booklet a well-organized and critical review of publications on protein and amino acid nutrition of infants and children. The majority of the published reports cited in the extensive bibliography (188 references) are recent (1956-1960). The authors indicate that their primary interest concerns "the minimal requirement for the great majority of infants in a group" and emphasize that they refer to the "minimal requirement for health rather than for survival." The difficulty in defining the simple word, "health," in a precise and comprehensive manner will suggest the difficulty of the task undertaken, and it is hoped that the reader will not be disappointed that specific statements about protein requirements at various ages do not actually go much beyond those of the FAO report published in 1957.¹Current information is simply not sufficient to warrant dogmatic assignment of values for minimal requirements of protein at