>
>In the grand scheme of things I just can't imagine how we would track BF at
>birth, 2 mo, 4 mo, 6 mo, 9 mo, 1 yr etc. except in small parts of the
>population here and there. Recall at any later point is notoriously skewed.
>  A real research dilemma.Sincerely, Pat in SNJ


To track an entire population would be hard - especially in the US -
but it should be possible to do a representative survey. I agree that
doing it retrospectively isn't good enough.

In the UK we have some fab stats which come out every 5 years in the
Official National Statistics Infant Feeding Survey - sadly they only
go up to 9 months, but they are very useful, sponsored by public
money, and have a wealth of socio-economic data too. The number of
mothers interviewed is about 1200 each time. It's from these ONS
figures that we know for sure our bf stats have been the same for 20
years : (

There is also the well-known  ongoing Dundee study, which has tracked
about 500 mother and baby pairs, and which has published two major
articles on bf and health - they are still tracking the babies, now
all aged about 15 or 16 (anyone who doesn't know this study can look
up Howie as the author in the BMJ).

Ideally, I would like to see every place that delivers or cares for
babies doing their own tracking - it's the only way you can see if
anything you do makes a difference. In fact, I wish this was step 11
of BabyFriendly.

Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc Newcastle upon Tyne UK

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