Negative calcium balance is commonly seen in newborn babies, some studies have related this to the formation in the gut of soaps with palmitic and stoaric acids, others have discounted it. Calcium and fat balances were performed on 17 babies for 2-7 day periods during the first 2 weeks of life. No relationship between fat,fatty acid, and calcium absorption was found when the balance results were analysed conventionally, ie. taking the balance period as a whole. The results were then analysed (unconventionally) for each day - this may be acceptable in babies having 4 or more stools per day. On the days when there was low fat excretion (15mmol triglyceride), calcium absorption was proportional to the absorption of C18 only. We cannot explain these relationships between calcium and fat absorption solely by the intraluminal formation of palmitic and stearic soaps. Nor is it likely they are an artefact of the daily analysis method used. There seems to be a more intimate relationship between the absorption of calcium and all the saturated fatty acids; this breaks down when fat excretion is high, possibly as soaps are formed.
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