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Subject:
From:
Katherine Dettwyler <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 13 Feb 2001 05:07:37 -0500
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I could not find anywhere on the CDC page where it said that NHANES II and
NHANES III data had been incorporated into the new charts.  Can someone
please tell me exactly where this information is located?

Someone wrote that the OLD CDC charts were: "based on the FELS data, which
was a sample of exclusively formula fed caucasian children."

This is what it actually says on the CDC web site: "The data for the
original charts came from a private study of primarily Caucasian,
formula-fed, middle-class infants from southwestern Ohio."

I realize that grammatically it is ambiguous.  The word PRIMARILY is
supposed to modify Caucasian AND modify formula-fed AND modify middle-class.
  Most of the infants were Caucasian, not all.  Most of the infants were
formula-fed, not all.  Most of the infants were middle-class, not all.  And
this doesn't change the fact that those children fed on formula were not
drinking modern day formulas.  It also doesn't change the fact that they
were starting solids at 2-3 weeks, as was the custom at the time.

Also note what else the CDC says about the new growth charts:

&#65279;"Compared to the original infant charts that were based on primarily
formula-fed infants, the revised growth charts for infants contain a better
mix of both breast- and formula-fed infants in the U. S. population. (On
average, since 1970 approximately one-half of children born in the United
States are reported to have been breast fed at some point, and about
one-third have been breast fed for 3 months or more.)"

We all know that many/most of these children born since 1970 who were
'breastfed at some point' were not breastfed exclusively and were not
breastfed for very long.  A baby who tried twice in the hospital and then
formula-fed gets counted as 'breastfed' for the purposes of claiming that
these charts are better than the old ones.

It is interesting to see that the CDC is now caving in to the common use of
these charts for pediatricians to track individual specific children, and
glossing over the fact that they were originally developed to allow
researchers to compare averages for groups of children to averages for
groups of US children.  They were never originally intended to be use to
track the growth of a single child.  Apparently, the CDC has given up trying
to prevent them being used this way.


Kathy Dettwyler





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