New standards have been set during the past few years for the growth of normal infants, owing to the increased knowledge of the nutritional requirements of babies during the first year of life. Such standards are expressed in terms of weight and height for age. The betterment of growth in these two directions has been due to numerous causes, not the least of which is the optimal intake of the dietary essentials and accessory food factors. McCollum and Simmonds,1 however, presented evidence in their monograph to show that the great majority of children, both in the United States and in other countries, do not make the growth that might be expected in view of the developments in the science of nutrition.In regard to vitamin B, a considerable amount of literature tends to show that while gross lack of this substance is encountered rarely in this country, evidence is seen frequently of moderate deficiency. The dietary habits, combined with the ever growing awareness of the nutri¬ tive essentials to health and growth, are such that there is small need to consider the grim conditions resulting from a diet completely deficient in vitamin B. Many of the symptoms arising from this complete lack, however, can be observed in a milder form in the every day debilities and illnesses of adults and children. A suboptimal intake of vitamin Downloaded From: http://archpedi.jamanetwork.com/ by a Western University User on 06/09/2015 may lead to ill defined functional disorders, anorexia, inefficient utiliza¬ tion of nutrients, a lowered hemoglobin content and even definite clinical symptoms. Hoobler,2 in his picture of infantile beriberi in the Philip¬ pine Islands, described the effect of complete deficiency of vitamin B. He noticed not only marked nervous disabilities, such as stiffness of the neck, arms and legs, but profound degenerative changes in the diges¬ tive system. The latter persisted for some time after the nervous phe¬ nomena, which quickly disappeared when the antineuritic substance was added to the diet. This picture of infantile beriberi is particularlyenlightening when attempts are made to understand the effects on growth, development and nutrition of a partial deficiency of vitamin B.Karr3 concluded that there is some relationship between the desire to partake of food and the amount of vitamin in the diet. In animals, Cowgill * emphasized the importance of anorexia as a fairly early symp¬ tom of withdrawal of this substance from the diet. For e'xample, in dogs, when the previous level of vitamin in the diet had been high, anorexia developed in an average of twenty-one days. Dennett5 and Bartlett6 suggested that a lack of vitamin may be an important factor in cases of anorexia in infants and that it tends to reduce resistance to infection.Perhaps it is reasonable to suppose that vitamin B, in addition to stimulating the appetite, brings about better assimilation and utilization of food and so builds up the general tone of the body. Gaynor and Dennett7 observed that the addition of vitamin in the form of rice polis...
