Is it true that breastfed babies grow more slowly than formula-fed babies?
Babies who are breastfed for the first year of life seem to grow more rapidly in the first three or four months and then more slowly for the rest of the year. At age 1, breastfed babies weigh less, on average, than formula-fed babies. Experts aren’t sure why this is so, but they do know that it’s absolutely normal and nothing to be concerned about. In fact, some research suggests that babies who grow too quickly may have higher cholesterol levels, higher blood pressure, and increased risk of obesity and diabetes later in life. In 2006, the World Health Organization (WHO) published a brand-new set of growth charts based on 8,500 babies who were breastfed. The mothers participating in the study planned to breastfeed exclusively or predominately for the first four to six months and to continue breastfeeding for at least 12 months. Before 2006, the growth charts that tracked babies’ length and weight gain – created by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 1977 and up
