Trends in breastfeeding

There has been strong, official encouragement of breast‐feeding since 1974 when the Department of Health published a report on Present‐day practice in infant feeding. Results from studies carried out in previous years, and reviewed in the 1974 report, indicated a general decline in the incidence of breast‐feeding, at least until the early 1970s. It appeared that at that time the majority of mothers made no attempt to breast‐feed. In addition most mothers introduced solid food into the infant's diet before the age of three months. Infant feeding practices thus did not conform with the official recommendation to breast‐feed for the first four to six months, and to discourage the introduction of cereals or other solid foods to the diet of babies before the age of four months.