Extended breast-feeding and growth in rural China.

The relationship between duration of breast-feeding and growth has been investigated in a cross-sectional study of children living in an economically disadvantaged rural area of Hubei province, People's Republic of China. Data were analyzed from 2148 initially breast-fed children aged 12-47 months. Children who were breast-fed for longer than 12 months had significantly higher mean Z scores for weight-for-age, height-for-age, and weight-for height than children breast-fed for shorter periods. The positive association between duration of breast-feeding remained after adjusting the data for 11 potentially confounding factors, including age, sex, father's occupation, mother's education, recent infections, age of introduction of solids, and the variety of the weaning diet at 1 year. These results support the contention that mothers in developing countries should be encouraged to breast-feed their children for the first 2 years of life with the addition of good quality weaning foods from about 4-6 months.