Article Abstract:
Feeding butterfat and animal milk to infants in the first 6 months of life is a practice in several pastoral groups of Africa and elsewhere. In the situations where the alternative foods replace breastmilk, the risk of malnutrition and infection goes up in the infant, but in high-risk populations that use these foods as complements, a more complex relationship exists relative to infant growth and morbidity. Nutritional status of mothers and nutritional adequacy of the milk they produce are factors. Hypothetically, where selection pressure is high, complementing fat in human milk may be beneficial.
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Article Abstract:
In the United States breastfeeding initiation and duration have gone in cycles and rates in the late 1990s are still short of the optimum from the public health point ot view. Human biologists, from the point of view of ecology of breastfeeding, have a potential role in enhancing its promotion. Biologists have a different conceptual model of breastfeeding from that of policy makers and public health professionals. An integrated model would take in sociodemographic factors as well as anthropological research, vocabulary and research expansion.
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Article Abstract:
In the preterm infant bacterial translocation and enteral feeding are factors in the development of neonatal necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC). In a study of 60 infants admitted to a neonatal intensitive care unit and followed to evaluate roles of bacterial endotoxins and enteral feeding, no breastfed infant progressed to Stage II or Stage III of the disease. Gut barrier function may be harmed by overgrowth of bacteria that produce toxin and by toxin products.
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