Someone asked a couple of weeks ago about a WHO reference regarding 
what percentage of a baby's diet is provided by breastmilk at 
different ages up to 1 year.

If I remember correctly, this came up originally because someone was 
telling a Lactnetter that babies "should" be getting (only) these 
percentages of their energy needs from breastmilk at these ages.

I just happened to be reading the World Breastfeeding Week Action 
Folder on the WABA website 
http://www.waba.org.my/wbw/wbw05/actionfolder.pdf and noticed this:

"On average, breastfed babies of 6-8 months obtain around 70% of 
their energy needs from breastmilk, this falls to around 55% at 9-11 
months, and 40% at 12-23 months."

The citation is:
Food and Nutrition Bulletin.  2003, 24 (1) Special Issue Based on 
World Health Organization Expert Consultation On Complementary 
Feeding. 
http://www.who.int/mip/2003/other_documents/en/FNB_24-1_WHO.pdf 
[warning: it's 144 pages]

The percentages appear to be calculated from the information in Table 
2, which is on page 7 of the pdf.

Now we are off on a reference-chase.  The milk energy intake in Table 
2 appears to come from this article 
http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/72/6/1558 .  From what I can 
ascertain, the breastfeeding patterns of infants in this study 
reflected US cultural norms and were not what we would consider ideal 
or optimal.  (After 4 months, that is -- participants agreed to stick 
with their feeding method exclusively through 4 months, then do as 
they wished.  So the BF babies were BF exclusively for at least the 
first 4 months.)

So -- the WHO percentages quoted above would appear to reflect 
*average* intakes in breastfed babies fed according to prevailing US 
cultural norms (heavily influenced by non-Code compliant marketing 
practices).  These are neither recommendations nor guidelines.

Warmly,
Margaret
Longmont, CO

             ***********************************************

To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest)
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
All commands go to [log in to unmask]

The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html