Premium
Weaning practices and iron status of exclusively breast fed infants
Author(s) -
Ntouva A.,
Rogers I.,
MacAdam A.,
Emmett P.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
journal of human nutrition and dietetics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.951
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1365-277X
pISSN - 0952-3871
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-277x.2011.01175_27.x
Subject(s) - medicine , breastfeeding , weaning , pediatrics , breast milk , breast feeding , informed consent , pregnancy , family medicine , alternative medicine , pathology , biology , genetics , biochemistry , chemistry , endocrinology
In 2001 the World Health Organisation (WHO) issued a public health recommendation that all infants should be exclusively breastfed for the first six months of life. The Department of Health adopted this recommendation in 2003 (Department of Health, 2003). However, as breast milk is very low in iron content (0.3–0.5mgL−1), there has been concern about the possible impact of this advice on the development of anaemia, a condition that if left untreated could cause irreversible developmental delays (Lozoff et al., 2000). The purpose of this research is to explore the weaning practices (dietary patterns and adequacy) and haemoglobin levels of long term breastfed infant