Calibration of the respiratory inductive plethysmograph (RIP) was performed in premature infants weighing less than 1,500 g. In only 25% of the studies was an acceptable calibration achieved, as assessed by statistical comparison of simultaneously measured pneumotachygraph and RIP tidal volumes. In 6 infants, dead space loading or air injection was performed in an attempt to alter abdominal and rib cage volume contributions and thereby improve the calibration. Neither of these maneuvers resulted in an improvement of the accuracy of the RIP calibration coefficient. We conclude that, when calibrated by the least squares technique, the reliability of inductive plethysmography in measuring tidal volume in small infants is low. This is presumably because they have very small tidal volumes and highly compliant rib cages.