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# When do breastfeeding moms introduce solid foods?
- URL: https://www.foodconsumer.org/breastfeeding_moms_introduce_solid_foods_0116110757/
- Published: 2011-01-16T20:55:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-22T16:03:42.000Z
- Description: Writing in the BMJ, Mary Fewtrell and colleagues argue the WHO's six-month exclusive breastfeeding recommendation should be reconsidered and solids introduced earlier, citing evidence on iron deficiency, energy needs, and late exposure to solids and allergy.
- Author: Food Consumer
- Tags: Nutrition, Breastfeeding, #vivvo-import

Mary Fewtrell and colleagues at the University College London published an article recently in British Medical Journal suggesting the universal 6-month exclusive breastfeeding recommendation may need to be reconsidered.

Authors of the articles also include David C. Wilson, Ian Booth and Alan Lucas, all experts in child and infant nutrition, the journal says. They suggest solid food should be introduced before an infant reaches 6 months old.

The authors say the WHO's recommendation infants should be exclusively breastfed for six months is largely based on a 2002 review by Kramer MS and Kakuma R of the World Health Organization.

The review compared health benefits from exclusive breastfeeding for six months with three to four months and found no growth deficits, no relation with the development of allergy, more rapid postpartum weight loss in the mother, but poorer iron status.

The Authors reviewed evidence made public since the 2001 WHO recommendation and said exclusive breastfeeding can significantly reduce infections such as gastroenteritis and chest infection, compared to those who were breastfed only for 4 to 6 months.

However, the authors cited studies saying that many mothers who exclusively breastfed their infants could not support their infants' adequate energy demand to six months. Iron deficiency is another problem associated with the six-month exclusive breastfeeding. Often liquid multi-vitamin vitamin drops are prescribed for the infant, who also needs more vitamin D than breast milk provides.

One observation that seems to concern the authors most is allergy and coelliac disease. The authors claims late exposure to solid foods and bitterness sensation can be the cause for many allergies and lack of appetite for consumption of vegetables.

Fewtrell et al. acknowledged most of the evidence before and after the WHO recommendation is largely observational, meaning that the evidence is suggestive of something only.

However, the authors who obviously advocate early introduction of solid food like infant formulas said even though in the West, six month exclusive breastfeeding seems to reduce the infection risk, it also raises some concerns including higher risk of iron deficiency anemia, high incidence of food allergies and high risk of coeliac disease with potential long-term complications.

Iron deficiency, according to the article, is known to be associated with irreversible adverse mental, motor, and psychosocial outcomes.

In the United States, the American Academy of family Physicians (AAFP) issued the following policy statement regarding breastfeeding.

*"Breastfeeding is the physiological norm for both mothers and their children. Breastmilk offers medical and psychological benefits not available from human milk substitutes. The AAFP recommends that all babies, with rare exceptions, be breastfed and/or receive expressed human milk exclusively for the first six months of life. Breastfeeding should continue with the addition of complementary foods throughout the second half of the first year. Breastfeeding beyond the first year offers considerable benefits to both mother and child, and should continue as long as mutually desired. Family physicians should have the knowledge to promote, protect, and support breastfeeding. (1989) (2007)"*

Fewtrell, Lucas, and Wilson have provided consultancy and/or received research funding from companies making infant formulas and baby foods in the past three years, according to the background information of the article.

David Liu, Ph.D. and editing by Aimee keenan-Greene