Infant Feeding, Infection, and Public Health

Research during the past 10 to 15 years has documented the protective effect of breast-feeding against a variety of infections during infancy and early childhood.1,2 The evidence is strongest for gastroenteritis but is also reasonably convincing for respiratory infections. The protective effect appears to be more striking, and thus easier to demonstrate, in settings where poverty, malnutrition, and poor hygiene are prevalent. Although numerous studies have been published from both developed and developing countries, little is known about the generalizability of the findings to the world's most populous country. The study by Chen et al3 in this issue, which comes from Shanghai in the People's Republic of China, is, therefore, of great interest.