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Objective: To establish incidence rates, clinic referrals, hospitalisations, mortality rates and baseline determinants of morbidity among infants in an Indian slum. Design: A community-based birth cohort with twice-weekly surveillance. Setting: Vellore, South India. Subjects: 452 newborns recruited over 18 months, followed through infancy. Main outcome measures: Incidence rates of gastrointestinal illness, respiratory illness, undifferentiated fever, other infections and non-infectious morbidity; rates of community-based diagnoses, clinic visits and hospitalisation; and rate ratios of baseline factors for morbidity