Advice Shifts on Feeding Baby

By PERRI KLASS, M.D. 18 and Under Dr. Perri Klass on family health. Anyone who has cared for a baby knows that it’s easy to become preoccupied with what goes in one end — with what you feed her and how — and to regard what comes out the other end with a kind of fascination, as if the diaper contained messages and auguries. What you feed a baby is a reflection of your beliefs and family traditions, your cultural background and life situation. But it also means considering the advice of a good many experts, from pediatricians to nutritionists to allergists. Those recommendations, in some cases, have changed rather drastically. Even as scientists re-emphasize the importance of breast-feeding...