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Growth curve charts are a valuable tool used by paediatrician to monitor nutritional status and to assess the growth of infants. In 1977, NCHS/CDC infant growth charts based on formula-fed infants, and widely used in the US, were adopted by the WHO as an international reference. Following a comprehensive review in 1993, WHO concluded that the growth of breastfed infants should become the established norm, as breast milk is the ideal source of nutrition for infants. Consequently, the WHO and the United Nations University, in collaboration with 6 countries and research institutions, undertook the Multicentre Growth Reference Study (MGRS). New WHO international child growth standards have been developed based on data collected from healthy infants exclusively or predominantly breastfed under optimal conditions in study centres located in Brazil, USA, India, Ghana, Norway and Oman.
The International Association of Infant food Manufacturers (IFM) welcomes all scientific progress in this context including:
- The WHO’s comprehensive review of the uses and interpretation of anthropometric references;
- The WHA’s subsequent endorsement of one new set of tools to assess infant and young child growth which move beyond past approaches designed to describe how children grow in a particular region and time to the more desirable goal of describing how all children should grow when their needs are met.
IFM will continue to work closely with national authorities and paediatricians and will adapt infant formula to any revised recommendations resulting from new information on growth patterns of breastfed infants. Moreover the infant food industry will actively seek ways to support the WHO and governments in their efforts to educate parents on appropriate feeding practices for breastfed as well as non-breastfed infants.
IFM believes that mothers who cannot, or choose not to breastfeed, for personal, cultural, socio-economic or health reasons, or who are unable to exclusively breastfeed for 6 months, should be supported in optimizing their infant’s feeding according to the recommendations of the WHO Expert Consultation on the Optimal Duration of Exclusive Breastfeeding. Parents should be given appropriate information by their healthcare providers on how best to feed their infants. For example, the safest and most nutritious option to breast milk is still infant formula manufactured to Codex Alimentarius standards and guided by scientific advice from paediatric experts.
Posted July 2006
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