Appropriate infant feeding practices result in better growth of infants and young children in rural Bangladesh

Background The World Health Organization and the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund recommend a global strategy for feeding infants and young children for proper nutrition and health. Objective We evaluated the effects of following current infant feeding recommendations on the growth of infants and young children in rural Bangladesh. Design The prospective cohort study involved 1343 infants with monthly measurements on infant feeding practices (IFPs) and anthropometry at 17 occasions from birth to 24 mo of age to assess the main outcomes of weight, length, anthropometric indexes, and undernutrition. We created infant feeding scales relative to the infant feeding recommendations and modeled growth trajectories with the use of multilevel models for change. Results Mean (+/-SD) birth weight was 2697…