Four in 10 Babies Given Solid Foods Too Early, Study Finds

Hunger, inability to sleep through the night often cited as reasons

By Serena Gordon
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, March 25 (HealthDay News) -- Child development experts advise parents not to introduce solid foods, such as baby cereal, into an infant's diet until the infant is at least 4 to 6 months old. However, new research suggests that about 40 percent of parents aren't heeding this advice and are giving their babies solid food much sooner.

The researchers also found that formula-fed infants were much more likely to be given solid foods too early than were breast-fed infants.

"Health authorities do advise parents to wait until after 4 months because infants aren't developmentally ready to eat solid foods before then," explained the study's senior author, Kelley Scanlon, an epidemiologist at the division of nutrition, physical activity and obesity at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta.

Scanlon said there are a number of other reasons why experts don't recommend early feeding. One is that the early introduction of solid foods has been linked to a shorter duration of breast-feeding. Early solid food consumption has also been linked to the development of chronic conditions, such as childhood obesity, celiac disease, diabetes and eczema, according to background information in the study.