BACKGROUND Childhood obesity is a significant public health challenge that affects approximately one in five children worldwide. Infant feeding practices are implicated in the aetiology of childhood obesity. Infant feeding interventions for childhood obesity are increasingly popular but outcome reporting is inconsistent across trials. Lack of standardisation limits examination of intervention e...

This paper begins with a discussion of social research which seeks to critique the emphasis on breastfeeding in infant feeding health promotion. The key themes of this research center on science, risk, and morality but other factors can also shape mothers’ decisions and practices regarding infant feeding, and particularly, breastfeeding. The paper explores a range of research studies which toge...

BACKGROUND The aim of this paper is to examine how breastfeeding is defined for research purposes. DISCUSSION Current breastfeeding definitions focus on the amount of breast milk an infant receives and do not encompass how a baby is fed. Our concerns are that key variables are not measured when mothers are pumping or expressing their milk and bottle feeding. It seems the breastfeeding relatio...

Infant feeding by HIV-infected mothers has been a major global public health dilemma and a highly controversial matter. The controversy is reflected in the different sets of WHO infant feeding guidelines that have been issued over the last two decades. This thematic series, 'Infant feeding and HIV: lessons learnt and ways ahead' highlights the multiple challenges that HIV-infected women, infant...

Attitudes of 2500 urban college girls from Ludhiana city, aged 15 to 20 years were assessed towards infant feeding using a standardized Likert Scale (r = 0.82). The influence of subject opted in college and the presence of a child less than 3 years in the family on the attitudes was also studied. The overall attitudes of the whole group towards infant feeding were negative. Science students had...

The impact of variations in current infant feeding practice on bone mineral accrual is not known. We examined the associations between duration of breast-feeding and compliance with infant dietary guidelines and later bone size and density at age 4 years. At total of 599 (318 boys) mother-child pairs were recruited from the Southampton Women's Survey. Duration of breast-feeding was recorded and...

OBJECTIVE To determine feeding practices and selected health-related behaviours in New Zealand families following a 'baby-led' or more traditional 'parent-led' method for introducing complementary foods. DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS 199 mothers completed an online survey about introducing complementary foods to their infant. Participants were classified into one of four groups: 'adherent ...

OBJECTIVES To assess knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding infant feeding among HIV-positive pregnant women in Gaborone, Botswana, and factors that influence their infant feeding choices. DESIGN A cross-sectional study. METHODS AND STUDY SETTING A questionnaire survey of 96 HIV-positive pregnant women attending four public infectious disease control clinics in Gaborone, Botswana. R...