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Breast-feeding and infant growth in the first six months
1Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Prince of Songkla University, Songkhla, Thailand.
Insights
This study on 67 breast-fed infants found their growth patterns differ from mixed-fed infants. Rural infants showed significantly shorter length, suggesting genetic influence on growth.
Area of Science:
- Pediatrics
- Human Growth and Development
- Nutritional Science
Background:
- Infant growth patterns are crucial for assessing development.
- Existing growth charts may not fully represent exclusively breast-fed infants.
- Understanding variations in growth is essential for early identification of potential issues.
Purpose of the Study:
- To analyze the growth patterns (weight and length) of exclusively breast-fed infants up to 6 months.
- To compare these patterns with established NCHS and Bangkok growth curves.
- To investigate potential differences between exclusively breast-fed and mixed-fed infants' growth.
Main Methods:
- Longitudinal study tracking weight and length of 67 healthy, exclusively breast-fed infants every two weeks from birth to 6 months.
- Statistical comparison of infant growth data against NCHS and Bangkok growth curves.
- Analysis of anthropometric data to identify significant deviations in weight and length.
Main Results:
- Weight curves for breast-fed infants were parallel to NCHS and Bangkok curves until 4 months, with slight, non-significant bending thereafter.
- Rural male infants were significantly shorter than NCHS and Bangkok data from birth.
- Rural female infants showed significantly shorter lengths after 4 months compared to reference data.
Conclusions:
- Exclusively breast-fed infants exhibit a distinct growth pattern compared to mixed-fed infants.
- Genetic factors likely influence the linear growth of rural infants.
- Current growth curves should be used cautiously for exclusively breast-fed infants, especially in specific populations.
Abstract:
Weight and length of 67 breast-fed infants were followed every two weeks from birth to 6 months. All infants were healthy and developed normally. Weight curves were found to be parallel to the NCHS and Bangkok curves up to 4 months then bending slightly but not statistically significant. This supports "the breast-fed infants having a different growth pattern from the mixed (breast-formula) fed" finding observed in studies from developed countries. In comparison to the NCHS and Bangkok length data, rural male infants were significantly (p less than 0.01 and 0.05 respectively) shorter from birth onwards, whereas, median lengths of the rural female infants were significantly shorter (p less than 0.01 and 0.05 respectively) after 4 months. Genetic influence on linear growth was thought to be the cause. The cautious use of the current growth curves on breast-fed infants was emphasized.