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Infant Health and Breast‐Feeding During the First 16 Weeks of Life
Author(s) -
FERGUSSON D. M.,
HORWOOD L. J.,
SHAN F. T.,
TAYLOR B.
Publication year - 1978
Publication title -
journal of paediatrics and child health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.631
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1440-1754
pISSN - 1034-4810
DOI - 10.1111/j.1440-1754.1978.tb02994.x
Subject(s) - medicine , breast feeding , respiratory illness , attendance , pediatrics , formula feeding , cohort , cohort study , respiratory system , economics , economic growth
Infant health and breast feeding during the first 16 weeks of life. The relationship between the method of infant feeding and health during the first sixteen weeks of life was examined in a cohort of 1,210 children. Totally bottle‐fed infants had four times the risk of consulting a medical practitioner for gastrointestinal disturbances when compared with totally breast‐fed infants. Breast‐fed infants had significantly less gastrointestinal and respiratory illness irrespective of medical attendance. However, when social background was taken into account, the relationship between breast feeding and respiratory illness became nonsignificant. The mortality rates and risk of hospitalisation for respiratory infections and gastrointestinal illness were unaffected by the method of feeding. Although breast feeding remains the optimal form of infant nutrition, the results of this study show that the benefits are marginal in a developed community in terms of illness in early infancy.