Twenty-five years ago, my mother-in-law began her quest as a breastfeeding pioneer. She faced all the usual obstacles a nursing mother faced at those times: public nursing, family skepticism and pressure from the medical community to start solids early and bottle-feed. One source of justification for medical professionals at the time was the standardized growth chart.

Today, breastfeeding mothers continue to be concerned about the growth patterns of their babies. The growth chart is still prevalent in their babies' medical care, but there are some important factors to help us understand them better.

The standard chart used by most pediatricians was created by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). The NCHS reference data is based on the Fels Longitudinal Study which took place in Yellow Springs, Ohio from 1929 to 1975. Most infants in this study were exclusively bottle-fed or were breastfed no more than three months. Additionally, solid foods were introduced at an earlier age, often as early as two weeks of age.

Therefore, the study does not accurately portray the growth patterns of exclusively breastfed babies and babies of non-white ethnicities. In addition, studies by Dr. Kathryn Dewey are showing that breastfed babies gain weight faster in the first six months and slower in the second six months, compared to their bottle-fed counterparts.

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