A BUNDOORA academic has welcomed the new official infant feeding guidelines that recommend babies be breastfed exclusively until six months of age.
RMIT University’s Dr Jennifer James said the guidelines released by the National Health and Medical Research Council last week were based on the latest scientific findings.
She said the organisation had resisted pressure from the food industry, which had lobbied to lower the age babies were introduced to solids to four months.
It is the NHMRC’s first revision of its guidelines since 2003 and the organisation considered research which supported the 2003 recommendation that babies be breastfed until six months of age, she said.
“Because of the [scientific] evidence, it is clear exclusively breast feeding babies to six months lowers morbidity and mortality rates,” Dr James, the course coordinator of nursing and midwifery at RMIT’s Bundoora campus said.
She said the risks associated with not breastfeeding to the age of six months included infections, allergies and obesity.
Dr James said introducing solid food after six months allowed infants to experiment so that they could “sit at the family table and eat what everybody else is eating” by 12 months.
The push for infants to eat solids at four months old had confused some health professionals as well as mothers, despite research recommending for at least a decade that infants only start on solids at six months old, she said.
Dr James said recent research confirmed the earlier guideline’s recommendation and gave mothers a clear picture.
The guidelines also recommend the best ways of preparing infant formula for those unable to breastfeed.
– Sue Hewitt
