Body Composition in Newborn Infants: Influences of Weight and Sex

Background: Understanding what constitutes „normal“ body composition in healthy neonates born at term is important when linking early infancy „programming“ with long-term health outcomes. Since the range in adiposity at birth in healthy term neonates is not well characterized, the aim of this ongoing study is to characterize body fat within two days of birth in offspring (>37 weeks gestational age [GA]) of healthy mothers with no pregnancy complications or diabetes history. Methods: We report on a multi-ethnic convenience sample of 22 males (39.6±1.3 GA) and 26 females (39.5±1.3 GA) aged 0–2 days who had total b…