No hiding baby fat from PEA POD

A new CNRC machine measures what little boys and girls are made of. Instead of snakes and snails or sugar and spice, though, researchers are looking for body fat.

"Even in infancy, children's fat and muscle composition could provide clues to their future health," said Dr. Ken Ellis, a Baylor Professor of Pediatrics and director of the CNRC's body composition laboratory. "But right now there isn't enough data on babies to answer such important questions as 'Is body weight or lean body mass the best indicator of when premature babies are healthy enough to go home?' or 'Are very chubby babies more prone to develop cardiovascular problems as adults?'."

According to Ellis, researchers currently rely on awkward tests conducted in bulky machines designed for adults to measure baby fat. This creates a problem because these machines generally require that the subject lie still, which often means delaying tests until babies fall asleep.

Not so with PEA POD.

Using the PEA POD, babies can be kicking and carrying on as infants do, and it does not influence the results," said Ellis.

The crib-sized PEA POD is actually mini-version of the BOD POD, one of the machines Ellis now uses to measure adult body fat. To use the PEA POD, the baby is placed in a pressure-controlled 'crib'. The machine measures the volume of space the baby occupies and contains a precise scale for measuring body weight. Ellis uses these two values to calculate the baby's body density, which is linked to the amount of body fat.

Ellis is currently looking for healthy infants between the ages of birth and 5-months to participate in the initial PEA POD studies, which will test the accuracy of PEA POD and collect data on how infant body composition changes with age.

Parents interested in participating should call 713-798-7002.