Breastfeeding During Early Infancy is Associated with Higher Weight- Based World Health Organization Anthropometry

Abstract

The World Health Organization (WHO) Expert Committee on Physical Status: The Use and Interpretation of Anthropometry established reference anthropometric standards for the growth of healthy infants and children. As part of a prospective clinical study of dengue virus infections in infants, we measured the length and weight of healthy infants in San Pablo, Laguna, Philippines at two scheduled study visits. We examined the correlation between breastfeeding and WHO anthropometric z scores during early infancy in San Pablo, Laguna, Philippines. We found that breastfeeding status and the frequency of breastfeeding during early infancy positively correlated with weight-based WHO anthropometric z scores.