Premium
Percent of WHO breastfeeding recommendation as a metric to combine breastfeeding duration and intensity during the first 6 months
Author(s) -
Woo Jessica Graus,
Herbers Patricia M,
Morrow Ardythe L
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.26.1_supplement.812.11
Subject(s) - breastfeeding , medicine , duration (music) , infant formula , metric (unit) , formula feeding , pediatrics , prospective cohort study , demography , cohort study , operations management , economics , art , literature , surgery , pathology , sociology
The WHO recommends mothers breastfeed exclusively for 6 months, providing a quantitative standard against which breastfeeding can be assessed. Epidemiologic studies of breastfeeding typically rely on summary measures such as duration of exclusive breastfeeding (EBF); however, these measures ignore complex patterns of non‐exclusive breastfeeding that may impact infant development. Using prospective weekly 24‐hour recalls from a highly breastfed cohort, we developed a metric of “percent of breastfeeding recommendation” or %BFrec, to incorporate both duration and intensity of all breastfeeding throughout the first 6 months relative to WHO recommendations. Weekly % of all feeds consisting of human milk were combined using Riemann sums to calculate the area under the curve up to six months. %BFrec ranged from 13% to 100%, and was strongly correlated with EBF duration (Spearman rho=0.80, p<0.001), but discrepancies with EBF were larger when EBF duration was lower (figure). Distinct patterns of non‐exclusive breastfeeding in the first 6 months may better define breastfeeding's role in infant outcomes. This study was funded by the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.