General principles of infant feeding.

The subject of infant feeding is one well worn by previous discussion, but there is always something to be gained by reviewing the accepted facts and presenting again the controversial matter. My task is to deal with the subject in a general way, and as there are papers by other speakers on breast-feeding (Waller, 1952) and artificial feeding (Smellie, 1952) I shall do my best to avoid anything more than a casual reference to these particular aspects. One accepts the fact that human milk taken by the infant from the mother’s breast is the ideal food for the human infant: this needs restating, particularly at the present time, because it has recently been questioned and figures have been published showing that small infants fed on a modified cow’s-milk mixture with a high protein content, can achieve more rapid gains in weight than with breast milk (Gordon, Levine & McNamara, 1947). That this is so can be accepted, but it is salutary to remind ourselves that good nutrition cannot be determined merely by a gain in weight. Indeed, except for the very small premature infant in the first weeks of life, a too rapid gain may be disadvantageous: overweight infants succumb to infections more frequently than those who are of average weight for age.