Fifty Years Ago in The Journal of Pediatrics:
Explosion of nursing bottles
Article Outline
Burnham, PJ. J Pediatr 1957;50:371
How prophetic was this title? During the next 3 decades, beginning in the United States and Europe and subsequently across the globe, the use of formula feeding rather than breast-milk-feeding of infants did indeed explode. The health consequences of bottle-feeding described in this report are undoubtedly rare and increasingly so with the advent of disposable bottles and liners. However, the relative adverse health consequences to both the infant and mother ensuing from bottle-feeding compared with breast-feeding are altogether too well known. And the list increases annually. Among its virtues, breast-feeding, compared with bottle-feeding, reduces a wide range of infections (most notably gastrointestinal infections, pneumonia, and neonatal sepsis), atopy, obesity, and both child and maternal cancer.1
Although nearly universal at the turn of the 20th century in the United States, by the 1950s when this report was written, breastfeeding rates were declining, and they reached their nadir in the 1970s, with only approximately one quarter of mothers initiating it in the hospital and one twentieth continuing it at 6 months. Concern about the use of bottle-feeding compared with breast-feeding was not noted in this article; indeed, there was little awareness of the trend or of the consequences of this trend at that time. Fortunately, in recent years, the rate of breast-feeding has increased substantially, with approximately two thirds of mothers initiating breast-feeding and nearly one quarter sustaining breast-feeding at 6 months at the turn of the 21st century.
However, the good news ends here. In the United States, breastfeeding rates are lowest among those at greatest risk: the poor, the undereducated, and infants with a birth weight <2500 g.2, 3 Recovery from the decreases in breast-feeding seen globally in the last half-century has been slow and has required an enormous investment of resources from multinational organizations, foundations, and ministries of health. Exclusive breast-feeding during the first 6 months of life is recognized as a key intervention for reducing infant and childhood deaths. However, to date, only 39% of infants in the 42 countries that account for 90% of childhood mortality worldwide are exclusively breastfed.4
Indeed, the explosion of nursing bottles was a national and global calamity from which we have still not recovered.
References
- . Increasing breastfeeding rates in New York City, 1980-2000. J Urban Health. 2005;82:198–206
- . The resurgence of breastfeeding in the United States. Pediatrics. 1997;99:12;-DOI: 10.1542/peds.99.4.e12. Accessed Aug 27, 2006
- . Who is breast-feeding? (Recent trends from the pregnancy risk assessment and monitoring system). J Pediatr. 2003;142:486–491
- Infant feeding patterns and risks of death and hospitilization in the first half of infancy: a multicentre cohort study. Bull World Health Organ. 2005;83;:ISSN 0042-9686. Accessed Aug 27, 2006
PII: S0022-3476(06)00886-9
doi:10.1016/j.jpeds.2006.09.005
© 2007 Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.
