Infants with congenital heart disease. Food intake, body weight, and energy metabolism.

Growth failure in infants with congenital heart disease was investigated by studies of food intake, change in body weight, oxygen consumption, carbon dioxide production, and lean body mass. Infants with congenital heart disease weighed less initially and gained less weight during observation than normal infants. The daily intake of calories per kilogram body weight was inadequate for some infants and considered generally adequate for others. Lean body mass was normal, and the quantity of oxygen used for metabolism was similar in both groups. Infants with congenital heart disease were not found to be hypermetabolic when oxygen consumption was related to lean body mass. The growth failure seen in these infants appears to be most appropriately related to inadequate calorie intake rather than to any other factor studied.