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Charles F. Whitten, MD
Detroit

JAMA. 1970;211(8):1379.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.—

Thompson and Blizzard have offered two criticisms of our paper relating to (1) "the choice of the title," and (2) "the conclusions reached." In our opinion, neither is valid.

The key word in the title is evidence, which our data do provide. The implication of the criticism is that we used the term "proof." We did not.

In our communication only four statements of a concluding nature were made:

1. In this study, 11 of 13 infants gained weight at an accelerated rate during simultaneous understimulation and adequate feeding in the hospital. This is strong evidence that their poor weight status on admission was not emotionally induced but was the result of undereating.
   
2. Our evidence that underfeeding is the etiologic factor in the growth failure of maternally deprived infants is based entirely upon weight gain.
   
3. There are several mental-health implications of our finding that the
   

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