A snapshot of the current Australian ECEC policy context around infant feeding was analysed including NQF and service policies for centre-based long day care and home-based family day care. The results reveal a lack of specificity and rationale for the NQF and service policies affecting nutrition and infant feeding.
This inadequacy impacts educator knowledge, belief and communication of outcomes expectancies for children’s diet. It also impacts the ability to engage with parents contributing to collective agency for curriculum implementation.
Breastfeeding
Breastfeeding is the biologically normal and nutritionally appropriate way to feed infants. The Australian NHMRC infant feeding guidelines Australia recommend exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months. This means that the child receives only breast milk (and occasionally expressed milk) with no other liquids or solids, except vitamins or medicines if necessary.
Health professionals should promote breastfeeding and support women to successfully initiate and continue it. They should provide consistent, clear and up to date information about breastfeeding including its benefits for the mother and child. They should offer women timely assistance when difficulties arise. This may include referral to postnatal home visits, lactation consultants or the Australian Breastfeeding Association.
When breastfeeding is not possible, it is important that health professionals encourage women to choose a safe formula and educate them about the different types available. The composition of infant formula is tightly controlled in Australia by Food Standards Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ). This ensures that the formula has the nutrients required for babies to thrive.
Feeding with a Spoon
Women in our study report that they receive a variety of infant feeding advice and information, including from friends and family. These sources are often in conflict with government and health professional recommendations. This is consistent with social constructionist theory which recognises that people interpret and make sense of nutrition problems in the context in which they exist.
Despite the availability of breastmilk, most mothers in our sample introduced solid foods to their infants before six months. This is a concern given that the Australian infant feeding guidelines recommend avoiding the introduction of cow’s milk, fruit juice and water-based drinks until at least six months of age.
The use of formula is a common way to feed infants and young children who cannot breastfeed. The choice of formula is a personal decision and should be made with the guidance of a doctor, child health nurse or dietitian. Fussy eating is a normal part of a toddler’s development and it can take many attempts for a child to taste and become familiar with new food. Refer to the Fussy Eating Group information on the Women, Youth and Children’s ACT Health website for further details.
Finger Feeding
The breastfeeding guidelines Australia have been designed to help mothers and babies with the optimum start in life. Breastfeeding provides the best nutrition for infants and offers health benefits to mother and baby. A wide range of international and Australian evidence shows that promoting and protecting breastfeeding will increase breastfeeding initiation and duration.
Despite the strong evidence of the benefits of breastfeeding, it remains one of the least reported activities in Australia. One reason for this is the difficulty in measuring breastfeeding, especially when using a retrospective survey like the ANIFS.
For these reasons, it is important for health professionals to encourage breastfeeding and educate women on the use of formula feeding where necessary. Health professionals should also be able to provide breastfeeding support that considers the individual circumstances of each woman and infant. This will allow breastfeeding to be a normal part of infant feeding.
Bottle Feeding
When breastmilk is unavailable, infant formula feeding is the most suitable alternative.
Australian commercial formula is regulated by Australia New Zealand Food
Standards Code and contains milk, minerals, vitamins and nutrients. There are also a range of ‘specialty’ formulas, some of which require a prescription.
Despite a wealth of information available to promote breastfeeding, many families use infant formula. Research shows that a lack of information and support can lead to poor bottle-feeding practices which may contribute to infant overweight and obesity.
To address this gap in knowledge, we analysed current resources to support formula feeding, produced by government agencies, health services, and not-for-profit parenting organisations. Resources were rated on their comprehensiveness, as measured by the percentage of content covering preparing and using infant formula. Moreover, they were assessed for their ability to inform best-practice bottle-feeding and responsive feeding strategies in accordance with UNICEF UK. Currently, most Australian formula-feeding resources are written at an 8th grade reading level and not widely available in multilingual translations.
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https://www.washingtondentist.com/article/advice-for-infant-tongue-tie/By John Byrd – ELAN Magazine “When an infant has noticeable challenges with breast-feeding, it is essential to have the problem properly diagnosed,” says Dr. Shohreh Sharif…
