I could not find Ross Survey of Breastfeeding for 2003 but thought a
comparison of these two national surveys would be interesting.

CDC 2003--USA
Ever breastfed--70.9%
6 months--36.2%
12 months--17.2%

Ross 2002--USA
Hospital--70.1%
6 months--33.2%
12 months--19.7%

Exclusive breastfeeding is where the two surveys are divergent.  Ross defines
this term:  "Exclusive breastfeeding included the subset of infants who were
fed only human milk in the hospital or at 6 months of age no supplemental
formula or cow's milk were used."  and "Information on introduction of solid foods
not included."  The CDC defines this term:  "Exclusive breastfeeding is
defined in this study as only breastmik and water--no solids or other liquids."

CDC 2003--USA--Exclusive breastfeeding
7 days--62.5%
6 months 14.2%
no data beyond 6 months

Ross 2002--USA--Exclusive breastfeeding
hospital--46.1%
6 months--17.4%
12 months--11.0%

I believe Ross is a mail-in survey unlike the CDC random digital dialing
survey.  I was somewhat surprised that the data on ever-breastfed are similiar
between Ross and the CDC.  My impression had been over the years from going to
various breastfeeding conferences that the Ross Survey was unreliable because it
was done by an infant formula company (of course maybe I misunderstood the
various speakers).

The data only seems to diverge in regard to "exclusive" breastfeeding and the
difference seems huge initially.  Ross took the data to 1 year (because
information on introduction to solids was not included) and the CDC  went to 6
months.  I  have been told by some women that they have exclusively breastfeed
their infants for 1 year (I don't know how they defined exclusive breastfeeding).
  Anyway just thought it would be interesting to see the data on the same
page and compare.
Valerie W. McClain, IBCLC

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

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