Daily vitamin D supplementation is recommended for breastfed infants, but alternative methods include enriching breast milk with vitamin D through maternal supplementation or intermittent high-dose vitamin D. We determined maternal preferences for vitamin D supplementation in 140 mothers with exclusively breastfed infants, and 44 who used both breast and formula milk. Only 101 (55%) supplemente...

QUESTION If a mother takes a sedating drug during breastfeeding, will it cause central nervous system (CNS) depression in her breastfed baby? ANSWER In some cases (eg, with the use of codeine or oxycodone) sedating drugs will likely cause CNS depression in breastfed infants and in other cases (eg, with the use of benzodiazepines) they will likely not. Mothers using sedating drugs should monit...

One of the most gratifying public health trends over the past 50 years in the United States has been the increasing rate of breastfeeding among newborn infants. In 1965, it was estimated that ,30% of neonates born in the United States were breastfed; by 2011, the percentage of infants who were at least partially breastfed had risen to 79%. A major focus of contemporary care during the birth hos...

This retrospective study examined duration of breast-feeding and concurrent contraceptive use among 5,648 Peruvian women. Data were gathered during 1986-1992 as part of the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS). The women gave birth to 7,951 infants, 95% of whom were breastfed; 44% of the mothers used contraception while breastfeeding. Consistent with the literature, mothers using oral contracept...

Introduction: There are many advantages in breastfeeding of infants. The impact of fasting of breastfeeding mothers during Ramadan, on their exclusively breastfed infants’ growth, is still unclear. The objective of this study is to determine the impact of maternal Ramadan fasting on growth parameters of exclusively breastfed infants. Methods: This cohort study was conducted on 55 healthy, exclu...

OBJECTIVE To examine adiposity in relation to breastfeeding using longitudinal analysis in an Australian birth cohort. STUDY DESIGN Repeated surveys from 16 weeks gestation to 8 years in a cohort (N = 2087) recruited through antenatal clinics. Overweight was defined by National Center for Health Statistics 95th percentiles for weight-for-length at 1 year and body mass index (BMI) at 3, 6, and...

Breastfeeding is associated with numerous health benefits to offspring and mothers and may improve maternal-infant bonding. Ample evidence suggests breastfeeding can improve child neurodevelopment, but more research is needed to establish whether breastfeeding is linked to the development of child psychopathology. This paper aims to explore the effects of both breastfeeding and mother-child int...

The objective of this study was to compare the growth of exclusively breastfed infants and formula fed infants in eastern Croatia. Additionally, we compared growth patterns and estimated overweight based on the World Health Organization (WHO) child growth standards and the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) references. The growth of 88 Croatian infants in two feeding groups (44 breast...

BACKGROUND Findings from observational studies suggest an inverse association between lactation and premenopausal breast cancer risk, but results are inconsistent, and data from large prospective cohort studies are lacking. METHODS We used information from 60,075 parous women participating in the prospective cohort study of the Nurses' Health Study II from 1997 to 2005. Our primary outcome wa...

BACKGROUND Data from a longitudinal study of 153 low-income Peruvian infants were used to assess the relationship between internationally-recommended definitions of feeding practices and infants' monthly weight gain and weight status at 12 months. METHODS Infants were classified into feeding categories using monthly reported data. Analysis of variance was used to assess the relationship betwe...