1 Departments of Pediatrics, Southwestern Medical School of the University of Texas, and Parkland Memorial Hospital, Dallas
The extracellular volume of a group of normal infants, in the first day of life, was measured by means of the corrected bromide space, and was found to be 358 ± 6.5 ml/kg of body weight. There was no consistent variation due to the sex or age of the infants.
No decrease was found in extracellular volume during the period 5 to 15 hours after birth. In the fasting and thirsting newborn one injection of hydrocortisone or desoxy-corticosterone acetate produced no detectable change in the measured bromide space after a mean of 6 and 7
hours following injection.