Sucking behaviour and milk intake of neonates in relation to milk fat content.

The hypothesis that a high concentration of fat in milk acts as a satiety signal for babies was tested by feeding neonates formula milks of different fat concentrations. Babies were tested on 2 consecutive days. On day 1 they were fed a high fat milk followed by a low fat milk, or vice versa, each for 2 min; and on day 2 the same procedure was followed but in the opposite order. Milk intake and 6 parameters of sucking behaviour were recorded. There was no indication that high fat milk acted as a cue to babies to slow or stop feeding. On the contrary babies appeared to feed more actively on the high fat milk, in that they sucked in longer bursts for it and spent a smaller proportion of the test period resting.