Infant Nutritional Physiological Phenomena

The pathogenetic links between diet and diseases such as hypertension and atherosclerosis remain the subject of much controversy. This article reviews the evidence about the relationship between diet and these two widespread adult conditions, proposes an approach for their early recognition, examines the rationale and safety of dietary changes, and formulates specific recommendations.

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is an autosomal recessive disease characterized clinically by recurrent respiratory tract infections and malabsorption caused by pancreatic insufficiency. Typically diagnosed during infancy or childhood, CF impairs weight gain and growth, increases susceptibility to infection, and decreases longevity. Until recently, no guidelines for infant feedings were available. A consensus report prepared through the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation summarizes guidelines for the optimal nutrition management of patients with CF.

The modification of ageing by nutritional intervention is well recognised. Post-weaning diet restriction is the only widely reproducible method to slow ageing, but the effects of prenatal and preweaning diet restriction have been less well characterised. There is some evidence that diet restriction instituted in utero or shortly after birth may have an opposite effect and be associated with increased ageing, and recent work suggests that it may shorten lifespan.

Effects of in utero and early life conditions on adult health and disease such as cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes are well documented by epidemiological and clinical observations. Animal models including intrauterine artery ligation, maternal restriction of iron, protein or general caloric intake, provide invaluable tools to understand mechanisms linking early growth and later diseases in adult life. In addition, the rodent model of maternal protein restriction has revealed that longevity can be influenced either positively or negatively by early growth patterns.

The public profile of neurodevelopmental research has expanded in recent years. This paper applies social representations theory to explore how early brain development was represented in the UK print media in the first decade of the 21st century. A thematic analysis was performed on 505 newspaper articles published between 2000 and 2010 that discussed early brain development.

Women's narratives of their breastfeeding experiences are sites of construction and reconstruction of self as they undertake moral work in relation to feeding their baby. We engaged Foucault's 'technologies of the self' and his notion of ethics (the relationship with self) to examine that moral work (individual actions rather than adherence to universal moral codes) in relation to women's subjectivity constructed in interviews with 49 women from the UK.

Among Maithil women there is an understanding of the relation between a mother's milk and the health of her child. Their understanding is supported by the Ayurvedic tradition. Characteristic is the way in which breast-feeding condenses so many meanings--nutritional, medical and moral--into one act. The mother not only nurses her child but also forms his character, fulfills her own personhood and perpetuates her husband's family.

BACKGROUND: The WHO recommends exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) for 6 mo after birth. However, the time at which breast milk ceases to provide adequate energy and nutrition, requiring the introduction of complementary foods, remains unclear. Most studies that investigated this issue were observational and potentially confounded by variability in social circumstances or infant growth. OBJECTIVE: We hypothesized that EBF infants would consume more breast milk at age 6 mo than infants receiving breast milk and complementary foods.