The relationship between breast-feeding and infant health and development

摘要

Advocacy for the practice of breast-feeding is not a recent phenomenon. Reference to the importance of breast-feeding is recorded in several historical and religious texts including the Koran and the writings of Hippocrates. However, despite these, and many other more recent influential epistles, we approach the end of the second millennium with the majority of infants in the UK being artificially fed. The reason why parents are not receptive to widely publicised advice on the benefits of breast-feeding is unclear but one can presume that they are not convinced by the evidence in favour of breast-feeding and do not perceive artificial feeding as being less than optimum for their child. For parents to make an objective choice of type of infant feeding they must be provided with information which is at least substantive and preferably unequivocal. The benefits of breast-feeding which are most frequently stated in the literature are that human milk protects against infection and allergic disease and will also enhance the child's intellectual potential. These are impressive claims and if thoroughly proven would surely influence the most sceptical parents in favour of breast-feeding. The purpose of the present paper, therefore, is to examine the validity of these claims in more detail with special emphasis being placed on the clinical evidence.