Growth of Breastfed Infants

Understanding normal growth for the healthy breastfed infant is an important component of promoting and supporting child health in general and breastfeeding in particular. In this article, we summarize what is known regarding differences in growth between breastfed and formula-fed infants; we describe the development and use of infant growth references and growth standards; we introduce the new World Health Organization growth velocity standards for early infancy (which provide standards for gain in g/day during the first weeks of life); and, in closing, we present a snapshot of recent data from a cohort of breastfed newborns in Sacramento, CA, and examine how their early weight gain compares to the new growth velocity standards.