Breastfeeding and infants' time use

Breastfeeding has a beneficial effect not only on an infant's nutritional status and health but also on developmental outcomes. How it effects development is not clear. One suggestion is that breast fed infants may spend their time and interact differently with their mothers ( and vice versa) than those who are not breast fed. A link between time use and development is seen in the attachment theory- infants who interact well with carers are more secure and develop better socially and emotionally. The Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS) has prepared a research report (1) looking at how breast feeding infants spent their time, in order to learn more about breast feedings impact on development.

Iron supplements and iron fortified infant cereal can improve the iron status of breast fed babies

Iron deficiency can occur in breast fed infants even though the iron in breast milk is highly bioavailable. Because of rapid growth during the first year of life, infants have to rely not only on breast milk iron, but also their own birth iron stores. Preventing iron deficiency is important, as it affects behaviour and brain development. A recent study has shown that providing iron to breast fed infants via iron drops or an iron fortified infant cereal, improves iron status and may prevent iron deficiency anaemia (1).

Early Infant Feeding and Type 1 Diabetes

Does the early introduction of cows milk to the infant's diet increase the risk of developing Type 1 diabetes? In Type 1 diabetes the beta cells of the pancreas no longer produce insulin. Along with inheriting a genetic predisposition to the disease, environmental factors such as the introduction of  food antigens which affect immune regulation, may also play a role. The association between introducing cows milk during the infant's first year of life and the development of Type 1 diabetes was investigated in a large population study undertaken in Helski, Finland (1).