Nutritional Problems in the Weaning Period with Special Reference to Chile

Abstract

There is wide agreement among pediatricians and nutritionists that human breast milk represents the optimal food for the human infant, but the substitution of breast feeding continues, often with dire consequences. The American Academy of Pediatrics has stated that “breast feeding is recommended for all full-term and vigorous preterm infants because human milk is nutritionally sound and because breast feeding tends to facilitate a close mother/child relationship”. Despite this and many other official statements there is a strong trend towards a short breast feeding period. At best, only 30 percent of American children are breast-fed for any length of time and women around the world seem to be nursing for less and less time. In the United States only 25 percent of infants are breast-fed at age one week and this figure declines to 5 percent at age 6 months. The decline in breast feeding has been marked and progressive during the last decades in industrialized countries. This fact is clearly illustrated by data from Sweden collected from 1944 to 1970.