Infant Survival Conditions

[Closet Philosopher]

I say this documentary on earthquakes on TLC.

It showed babies being pulled from wreckage over ten days after the Quake. Normal adults would be lucky to survive fife days without water and food. How can these babies survive two weeks without anything? I know it is an adaptation to compensate for poverty and inadequate parents, but what is the biology behind it? Won't babies dehydrate and die if they are left alone for a substantial period of time?

 

[John Connellan]

Babies have large reserves of fat (unlike most non-american adults) and, more importantly, they seem to dehydrate much slower than adults too. I would imagine the baby's endocrine system was put into a stress alewrt and it urinated less frequently allowing more efficient storage of water.