Thanks, Nina.

Like you, I think it sounds like  the US exclusive breastfeeding 
figures are overstated . A telephone survey done with mothers when 
their babies are 19-35 mths is bound to be affected by recall.

Our UK figures (1 per cent excl bf at six months) are almost 
certainly *understated*.

There needs to be an international standard for data collection - 
same words, same way of surveying, same age when mothers are 
interviewed.

I am waiting to sit in a meeting when someone asks me why US excl bf 
rates are 19 times higher than UK ones.....:)


Heather Welford Neil,
NCT bfc, tutor, UK



>Hi Heather
>I have just had a look at the survey items and they're pretty robust 
>(At what age was child first fed infant formula?  At what age was 
>child first fed anything other than breastmilk or infant formula?). 
>The prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding will be somewhat 
>overestimated (but the error is systematic so the trends between 
>surveys are valid) because mothers tend to round up to the next 
>significant age interval when asked to recall important childhood 
>events. 15 and a half weeks is likely to be reported as 4 months, 
>for example.  There is much discussion of the usefulness of EBF AT 
>six months as an indicator, since recommended practice is to 
>introduce solids around 6 six months.  TO 6 months is better and AT 
>5 months probably the best indicator.\
>Cheers
>NINA BERRY PhD
>
>>  On 23 Oct 2014, at 2:50 am, heather <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>>  A colleague has sent this:
>>
>>  http://www.cdc.gov/breastfeeding/pdf/2014breastfeedingreportcard.pdf
>>
>  > How robust is the collection of the data?

-- 

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