Current thoughts on healthy term infant nutrition: the first twelve months

Because nutrition plays a critical role in infant growth and development, healthcare providers need current and accurate information in order to address parental concerns about infant nutrition. Although the benefits of breastfeeding are well recognized, mothers may decide not to breastfeed, and parents may have concerns about when to introduce foods other than human milk or formula. Findings from several studies indicate that parents continue to have questions related to infant feeding throughout infancy. Because nurses interact with parents during pregnancy, labor, birth, the postpartum, and routine infant care visits, nurses are a natural choice for parents to gain information about their babies. This article presents an update on select issues related to term infant nutrition, and specifically examines formula feeding, nutrient supplementation, introduction of solids, the use of juices, the vegetarian mother and infant, and infant colic.