VR:Premature babies who receive regular massages

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Premature babies who receive regular massages are more active than premature babies who do not. Even when all the babies drink the same amount of milk, the massaged babies gain more weight than do the unrnassaged babies. This is puzzling because a more active person generally requires a greater food intake to maintain or gain weight.

Which of the following, if true, best reconciles the apparent discrepancy described above?

(A) Increased activity leads to increased levels of hunger, especially when food intake is not also increased.

(B) Massage increases premature babies' curiosity about their environment, and curiosity leads to increased activity.

(C) Increased activity causes the intestines of premature babies to mature more quickly, enabling the babies to digest and absorb more of the nutrients in the milk they drink.

(D) Massage does not increase the growth rate of babies over one year old, if the babies had not been previously massaged.

(E) Premature babies require a daily intake of nutrients that is significantly higher than that required by babies who were not born prematurely.

OA:C

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by ceilidh.erickson » Sun Jan 15, 2017 5:44 pm
We need an additional piece of information that explains when premature babies who receive massages gain more weight even though they drink the same amount of milk and are more active.

(A) Increased activity leads to increased levels of hunger, especially when food intake is not also increased.
This tells us nothing about gaining weight. The fact that they're hungry but don't receive additional food wouldn't tell us anything about weight gain.

(B) Massage increases premature babies' curiosity about their environment, and curiosity leads to increased activity.
This explains why these babies are more active, but that's not what we care about. We need to explain why they gain weight. This doesn't help.

(C) Increased activity causes the intestines of premature babies to mature more quickly, enabling the babies to digest and absorb more of the nutrients in the milk they drink.
Bingo! If they absorb more nutrients, they'll gain more weight, even with the same amount of milk.

(D) Massage does not increase the growth rate of babies over one year old, if the babies had not been previously massaged.
Irrelevant - we only care about when they're babies.

(E) Premature babies require a daily intake of nutrients that is significantly higher than that required by babies who were not born prematurely.
We don't care about the comparison to non-premature babies. We only care about premature babies with and without massages.

The answer is C.
Ceilidh Erickson
EdM in Mind, Brain, and Education
Harvard Graduate School of Education