Fat in Infancy

Abstract

One interesting way the newly born infant assures a stable supply of energy to both body and brain, aside from breast milk, is through its reserves of body fat. Human newborns are the fattest babies in the mammalian world, fatter in fact than seals and sea lions (Kuzawa 1998:181, Table 1; see also Wells 2006). This is one area in which humans differ dramatically from their nearest primate relative, the chimpanzee, whose babies are thin, gaunt, and very wrinkled – almost prune-like – in appearance.