Differences between gains in weight-for-age and length-for-age of breast fed infants in Delaware County, Indiana and the National Center for Health Statistics growth standards

Breast fed infants appear to grow less rapidly after the first three months of age when compared with current standards from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). The NCHS standards are a composite of two other studies both of which used formula fed infants or infants who were breast fed for a short period of time. Current literature suggests a breast fed infant's deviation from NCHS standards should be considered a normal pattern with no apparent deleterious consequences to a breast fed infant. This study was undertaken to determine whether differences do exist between the growth patterns of breast fed infants in Muncie, Indiana, and NCHS standards, and if so, at what age do the differences become apparent. For this study growth data were gathered for 66 infants. The subjects were women who attended the Obstetrical and Family Practice Clinics of Ball Memorial or were patients of private physicians in Muncie and Delaware County, Indiana and who volunteered to participate in the study. Women who were free of chronic conditions were elgible to participate in the study. A 24-hour data collection period was conducted one day each month for one calendar year or as long as the subjects remained in the study. Immediately before and after each nursing during the 24-hour time period weight measurements were taken and recorded for the infants. Lengths were measured once at this time. The analysis of data from this study is similar to previous studies, and showed that weight gain in particular, but also length gain, of the breast fed infant was slower after three months of age in comparison to NCHS standards and supports the recommendations of others that the weight gain of breast fed infants should not be compared to current NCHS standards and new growth charts based on breast fed infants are needed.Department of Family and Consumer SciencesThesis (M.S.