New parents are inundated with advice on how to feed their newborns. The first matter to confront new parents, and one in which the advisors tend to harbor unusually strong opinions, is the one of breastfeeding. Then there is no shortage of advice on when to start solid foods and whether they should start with fruits or vegetables. However, the evidence for many of these opinions is mostly anecdotal.

In an effort to offer pediatricians and parents an update on the state-of-the-science, the American Academy of Pediatrics has published an entire supplement to its journal Pediatrics summarizing evidence collected from six years of follow-up on children in the Infant Feeding Practices Study II.

The Infant Feeding Practices Study II is a longitudinal cohort study on mothers and their babies beginning in the third trimester of pregnancy through the infants’ first birthdays. A follow-up assessment was conducted for all subjects again at the children’s sixth birthday. Among the data collected are a variety of details on each mother-baby pair’s diet and nutrition.

Careful statistical analyses revealed that children who are breastfed for their first several months of life are less likely to have ear, sinus, and throat infections. Otherwise, they did not differ in other outcomes recorded, including food allergies. Breastfeeding led to no differences in psychosocial development in the children. However, breastfed children had fewer emotional and behavioral problems, although scientists determined this difference had more to do with other parenting and domestic factors.

Children who were breastfed tended to eat more fruits and vegetables and drank more water than sweetened beverages. Children who did drink sweetened beverages during their first year were twice as likely to be obese and still drinking sweetened beverages at age six.

Children who were not started on fruits and vegetables early tended to not eat as many of these foods later compared with those who were given fruits and vegetables early in life.

Mothers who fed their babies with bottles, containing either pumped breast milk or formula, were more likely to encourage their children to finish the bottle and thus eat more. Breastfeeding did not seem to help mothers lose their pregnancy weight.

Recommendations included breastfeeding if possible, refrain from feeding infants sweetened beverages, introduce fruits and vegetables within the first year, and do not push an infant to finish a bottle or clean the plate of all food.