Prolonged bottle-feeding linked to iron deficiency

TORONTO - Family doctors and paediatricians can influence when parents wean their children from the bottle and help reduce iron deficiency.

Only five minutes of advice about the dangers of prolonged bottle use resulted in a dramatic, 60 percent drop in the number of babies still using the bottle at age two, said study leader Jonathon Maguire, the paediatrician at the St. Michael’s Hospital.

“We and others have previously found an association between prolonged bottle feeding (beyond 16 months) and iron deficiency,” said Patricia Parkin, the senior study author and associate professor in paediatrics, University of Toronto, reports the journal Paediatrics.

Most of the babies whose parents received the advice stopped using the bottle by their first birthday, compared to 16 months for babies whose parents received no instruction, Maguire said.

The American Academy of Paediatrics recommends complete bottle weaning for healthy children by 15 months, but Maguire said many doctors and parents are not aware of this, said a St. Michael’s Hospital release.

Many parents continue bottle feeding well past that time, even until their children are three or four years old.