Sugars in Blood and Urine of Milk-Fed Normal Young Infants

Abstract

Tengström, B. & Wranne, L. Sugars in Blood and Urine of Milk-Fed Normal Young Infants. Scand. J. clin. Lab. Invest. 22, 137-141, 1968. Sixteen normal infants, aged 4-6 days, were given 50 ml of human milk. In blood drawn at regular intervals during the following four hours no galactose was found. In ten infants 4-6 days old the urine collected during four hours after the feeding of 50 ml of human milk contained 0-11 mg of galactose, 0-23 mg of lactose, and 0-3 mg of glucose. The highest concentrations of these sugars were 126, 252, and 14 mg/100 ml, respectively.

The 24-hour excretion of sugars in 18 infants aged 1 week-4 months was also studied. 0-90 mg of galactose, 70-249 mg of lactose, and 0-42 mg of glucose were excreted.

Routine screening of newborn infants for the detection of galactosaemia can probably be made by testing for galactose in blood.

Key Words:

• Galactose
• galactosaemia
• glucose
• infant
• lactose