The initial gastric contents of the newborn were found to have a median pH of 5.4 at ages of 15 to 60 minutes. Specimens taken 1 hour later, representing the fresh secretion produced in the interval since the first specimen, showed a pH of 3.1 which [See Table 1 in Source Pdf] decreased only to 2.2 by 5 to 6 hours. The clinical implication of the findings is that the newborn does not have much of the antiseptic effect of gastric acidity at birth but develops it within a few hours.