How much energy does a developing brain in an infant consume?

Medical experts say that as a result of rapid brain development, 50—60 percent of a baby’s metabolic energy (primarily the consumption of glucose) is spent on growing a massive adult brain. In clear contrast, the brain of an adult uses only about 20—25 percent of the body’s metabolic energy.

So it is said that in a baby about 50—60 percent of the baby's energy is directly used by the brain to simply develop links for motor skills (actions that involves a baby using muscles in the brain to control arms, legs, and feet of the body). A baby's brain will also use energy to prepare for speech long before the infant can really speak.

A study of 6 month old babies at the University of Washington also showed that in total over 50—60 percent of energy was used for activation of motor parts in the brains of young babies. In this study, areas associated with the physical aspects of speech (the Broca area and the cerebellum) were shown to be active before babies actually began to speak. The suggestion was that a baby's brain sets up transitional ground networks. The process known as “analysis by synthesis” is established. The brain in an infant predicts the motor movements that will be required to make sounds and provide speech.

Most general pediatricians hold that the entire development of an infant’s brain in the first six months of life is the development of motor skill. Focus is on taste, touch, smell, hearing, and sight—with cognitive abilities virtually nil.