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Do early infant feeding patterns relate to breast-feeding continuation and weight gain? Data from a longitudinal cohort study

Abstract

Objectives: To describe the first-week feeding patterns for breast- vs bottle-fed babies, and their association with sustained breast-feeding and infant weight gain at 6 weeks.

Design: A longitudinal cohort study.

Setting: Feeding diaries were completed by mothers in an urban UK community shortly after birth; follow-up weight and feeding data were collected at routine health checks.

Subjects: Mothers of 923 full-term infants born during the recruiting period agreed to join the study. In all, 502 usable diaries were returned from 54% of the cohort.

Results: Breast-fed infants were fed more frequently (2.71 h between feeds) than bottle-fed infants (3.25 h between feeds) and mixed-fed infants (3.14 h between feeds) (P<0.001) in the first week of life, while duration of feeds was similar. Only exclusive breast-feeding in the first week (P<0.001) and maternal education (P=0.004) were related to continued breast-feeding at 6 weeks. Greater first-week feeding frequency (as measured by feed-to-feed interval, h) was associated with higher weight gain at 6 weeks for breast-feeders, but no analysed factors were associated with higher weight gain for bottle-feeders.

Conclusions: This large-scale study of first-week feeding patterns sheds light on the important and complicated issues of breast-feeding continuation and infant weight gain, with implications for the feeding advice given to mothers. Supplementary bottle feeds were clearly associated with discontinued breast-feeding at 6 weeks. Over that period, higher weight gain was associated with more frequent feeding for breast-fed infants only.

Sponsorship: Henry Smith Charity, SPARKS, Child Growth Foundation.

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Acknowledgements

The project support was provided by the Henry Smith Charity, SPARKS, and the Child Growth Foundation.

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Guarantor: RE Casiday.

Contributors: REC was the principal researcher responsible for data analysis and manuscript preparation. CMW was responsible for overseeing data collection and analysis, and manuscript preparation. CP-B was responsible for overseeing data analysis and manuscript preparation. KNP was responsible for data collection.

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Correspondence to R E Casiday.

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Casiday, R., Wright, C., Panter-Brick, C. et al. Do early infant feeding patterns relate to breast-feeding continuation and weight gain? Data from a longitudinal cohort study. Eur J Clin Nutr 58, 1290–1296 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejcn.1601964

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