Baby feeding: Trying to get it right

Bottle-feeding: Why it remains controversial

In Britain, in August 2007, the Department of Health announced that it was piloting the baby growth charts recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO) with a possible aim of these replacing the charts that have been in use over the last two decades. So, what is the drive behind this?

There has been a clamour for sometime from many nutritional experts that the existing charts were fuelling infant over-feeding. This usually affected those mothers who were breast-feeding. When it appeared that the infant was falling behind in the expected weight on the charts, there was pressure for the mother to supplement the breast milk with formula milk or in some cases, to abandon breast-feeding altogether.

The WHO growth charts are based on breast-fed infants and therefore the growth curve is gentler and regarded by many experts as more ‘natural’ and representative.

Infant formula or artificial feeding is known to be more calorie-rich and therefore more prone to lead to overweight infants. However, its main weakness, which is impossible to overcome, is the absence of passive immunity components (antibodies) passed from mother to baby via breast milk. There are other issues that surround bottle-feeding which are dealt with in more detail in our section on breast-feeding.

Rates of breast-feeding in the western world differ greatly from country to country. By 6 months, over 75% of mothers will still be breast-feeding in Norway. The rate is 9% in Italy. Other countries fall somewhere in between.

The Norway baby feeding Experience

Norway’s apparent success in the area of breast-feeding came after the authorities there put in place social policies that are conducive to it.

Among other things, new mothers are entitled to 42 weeks of maternity leave with full pay. Also those returning to work are entitled to up to 90 minutes absence for breast-feeding. This could be going home to the baby or having the baby brought to the work-place where this is usually facilitated.

Long-term issues for overweight babies

Anything that promotes excessive weight gain at any stage in life should be a cause for major concern. This is more so when dealing with young children who would not have a say in what they are fed but who will have to live with the consequences.

In the UK (total population: 60 million), over 1 million children under 16 are known to be obese. This is double the number just 10 years ago. The vast majority of these will be obese adults. The price that the individual and society in general pays for this is very high. It is difficult to know exactly in what proportion the problem starts with excessive bottle-feeding during infancy but with the rate of breast-feeding at less than 1 in 4 at 6 months, it is likely to be substantial. Unfortunately, the artificial formula is, in many cases, followed by poor diet and a sedentary lifestyle in childhood where the most exercise a child gets is tapping the keyboard for hours on end.

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