I got foolish news from Australia. Recent studies of Queensland public health researcher warn breastfeed babies at the risk of overfeeding.

The reason is that breastfeed baby doesn’t grow as fast as the growth charts recommend. Researcher says infants who are breastfed could be misdiagnosed as “failing to thrive” because their normal weight gain is slower than bottle-fed babies. Australian states currently use either the US or UK growth charts, which are inaccurate because they are based largely on bottle-fed sizes as ideal models.

photo credit: Daniel Greene

As a result, mothers of babies deemed not to be meeting growth targets might be wrongly discouraged from breastfeeding or encouraged to supplement their baby’s diet with artificial formula.

Jan Payne of Queensland University of Technology says it is unnecessary to give artificial formula for breastfed babies in many cases. “There is a distinct difference in weight gain in the first 24 months between breastfed and bottle-fed babies,” Payne said. Babies who are fully breastfed and growing normally can be mistaken as not thriving if their weight over time is compared to current growth charts. This is because their weight for age tends to fall below that for artificial formula-fed infants after about six months of age.

Well, if it happened, why don’t Australian use breastfeeding based grow charts standards? Authorities could adopt universal standards that developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) which breastfeed based to judge all babies.

The WHO Child Growth Standards are based on a longitudinal international study of the growth of infants in good health who were exclusively or predominantly breastfed for at least four months. It is based on scientific evidence that infants from anywhere in the world have similar growth patterns when their health and nutrition needs are met.

Tags: child growth standards, baby care, Queensland, babies, misdiagnosed babies, breastfeeding, Australian Babies