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Green, Tiffany; Dickinson, Katherine --- "The Economics of Infant Feeding" [2011] ELECD 600; in Cohen, R. Lloyd; Wright, D. Joshua (eds), "Research Handbook on the Economics of Family Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011)

Book Title: Research Handbook on the Economics of Family Law

Editor(s): Cohen, R. Lloyd; Wright, D. Joshua

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781848444379

Section: Chapter 8

Section Title: The Economics of Infant Feeding

Author(s): Green, Tiffany; Dickinson, Katherine

Number of pages: 53

Extract:

8 The economics of infant feeding
Tiffany Green and Katherine Dickinson


1. INTRODUCTION

Over the course of a child's life, parents and caregivers make numerous decisions that
impact future health and well-being. One of the first and most basic choices is what
to feed an infant in her early days, months, and years. While current dialogue within
maternal wards in hospitals, public health campaigns, and the research community
often frames this as a dichotomous choice of "breast vs. bottle", these decisions are in
fact more nuanced and complex. Rather than a simple, one-time choice to "breastfeed
or not", infant feeding is a series of decisions about what and how to feed a child over
the first two years of his or her life. At birth, a mother must decide whether to initiate
breastfeeding or give her baby some alternative. If the child is unable to breastfeed, is
the "best" decision to feed her formula or expressed breast milk? If the child is breastfed
initially, how long should breastfeeding continue? At what age should parents introduce
complementary foods?
While infant feeding practices have varied across and within countries over time (Ryan
et al. 2002; Wolf 2003; UNICEF 2009), the current consensus in the medical and public
health community is that children should be breastfed at birth, continue to breastfeed
exclusively for the first 4­6 months, and receive breast milk along with complementary
foods up to 12­24 months of age (see Box 8.1 for a summary ...