Camille -- I suspect those are figures per kilo of body weight, and the
breastfed babies are taking in 18.7 gms per kilo of body weight, while the
formula fed babies are taking in 23.0 gms per kilo of body weight.  But I
could be completely wrong.

HOWEVER -- please read my article on growth before you finalize this
in-service.  The current growth charts were based on many babies, some of
whom WERE breastfed, and the formula-fed ones were getting early commercial
or home-made formulas, not the currently available formulas.  Also, the
growth studies of Dewey and colleagues showing lower growth in the breastfed
babies were done on babies in Davis, California.

I suspect that Dewey's breastfed children aren't growing as fast as the
formula-fed children because:

(1) most of the breastfed children in the DARLING study were breastfed on a
3-4 hour schedule (and we know that human children/breast milk are designed
to be breastfed much more often than that), and we know that the more often
a woman nurses, the more milk she has and the higher the fat content of that
milk; so breastfed children fed "on demand" (which may be as often as
several times per hour for a few minutes each time) will have access to more
milk and higher-fat content milk, therefore they may very well grow faster; also

(2) most of the breastfed children in the DARLING study were sleeping alone
-- by themselves, in a separate crib and separate room, and were
encouraged/forced to sleep through the night at an early age -- this, of
course, cuts down on the breastfeeding at night, and also reduces moms' milk
supply, which again may account for why the breastfed kids don't grow so fast.

I am not ready, at this point, to lobby for new growth charts based on Dewey
et al.'s work.  The World Health Organization is currently doing studies
around the world on children who co-sleep and who breastfeed on demand.
Those charts will be available in 2003.

Kathy Dettwyler

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