Breast-feeding and infant growth in the first six months.

Weight and length of 67 breast-fed infants were followed every two weeks from birth to 6 months. All infants were healthy and developed normally. Weight curves were found to be parallel to the NCHS and Bangkok curves up to 4 months then bending slightly but not statistically significant. This supports "the breast-fed infants having a different growth pattern from the mixed (breast-formula) fed" finding observed in studies from developed countries. In comparison to the NCHS and Bangkok length data, rural male infants were significantly (p less than 0.01 and 0.05 respectively) shorter from birth onwards, whereas, median lengths of the rural female infants were significantly shorter (p less than 0.01 and 0.05 respectively) after 4 months. Genetic influence on linear growth was thought to be the cause. The cautious use of the current growth curves on breast-fed infants was emphasized.