> I have heard that the recommendation was supposed to be "exclusive human or
>formula milk for 6 months" but the 4 month boundary got in there as a result
>of cultural and industrial pressures. So for years is was "for 4-6 months."
>Only recently has the AAP extended the recommendation to 6 months.

The World Health Organization recommendations are for solid foods to be
started at "4 to 6 months".  They have not changed since 1979.  This has
been discussed at some length in the past on LactNet, so interested readers
can check the archives.  The "4 to 6 months" comes from multiple research
studies showing that among populations living under difficult circumstances
(mothers not the best nourished, lots of diseases and parasites) the average
growth of breastfed children begins to falter at about 4 months.  In healthy
well-nourished populations, it begins to falter at about 6 months if
breastfeeding is not complemented with solid foods.  The catch is that the
complementary foods must be "nutritionally adequate and safe."  Neither of
these conditions are likely to be met under Third World circumstances, which
is why it is often better to delay solids, and give up some growth, in order
to postpone the addition of foods to the diet that offer little
nutritionally and are contaminated with bacteria and parasites, and have the
net result of the children getting sick and growing even more poorly than
they were on breast milk alone.  Thus, the Malian (West Africa) practice of
not having children start solids at 8-9 months is probably adaptive under
their circumstances, even though growth is definitely faltering by then.

The 4 to 6 month age range has nothing to do with "cultural or industrial
pressures" -- it is based on studies of children's growth from around the world.

Guidelines written to include all babies the world over MUST include an age
range that encompasses both the children of poorly nourished mothers living
under difficult circumstances AND the children of well-nourished mothers
living nder conditions of over-nutrition and excellent health.

These guidelines are meant to refer to entire populations of babies.

INDIVIDUAL BABIES may grow poorly on breast milk alone from birth, if their
mother has a poor supply or they are not effective at suckling or they have
greater than normal needs due to a heart defect, etc. etc. etc.

INDIVIUDAL BABIES may grow fine on breast milk alone until more than 12
months of age, if their mother has an ample milk supply.

HOWEVER, it is the rare baby who does not express interest in eating
sometime around 4-5-6-7-8 months of age.

This trashing of the perfectly reasonable "4 to 6 months" recommendation is
one of my pet peeves, as those of you who have been around for a long time
well know.

Climbing down off the soapbox.
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Katherine A. Dettwyler, Ph.D.                         email: [log in to unmask]
Anthropology Department                               phone: (409) 845-5256
Texas A&M University                                    fax: (409) 845-4070
College Station, TX  77843-4352
http://www.prairienet.org/laleche/dettwyler.html