Incidence and treatment of infantile gastro-entritis in general practice.

Before the advent of antibiotics, it was accepted teaching that breast-fed babies were less liable to infective gastro-enteritis than bottle-fed babies, and that the outcome in the former was better. However, coincident with the widespread use of antibiotics in treatment, there has been a gradual change in infant feeding habits, with a decline in breast-feeding. Thus, Newson and Newson (1962) in a survey of more than 700 mothers of 12-monthold children, in Nottingham, found that 83% were breast-feeding at 4 days after birth, while only 60% were still doing so at 2 weeks and 50% at 3 weeks. Only 1 in 10 mothers continued for as long as 6 months, the age which is commonly taken as the normal time to wean from the breast. These figures have been complemented more recently by Burnett (1965), in a survey on 288 patients attending the maternity department of the West Middlesex Hospital, Isleworth: 75% new patients expressed a wish to breast-feed their babies, and on discharge from hospital 88% were actually doing so, but 6 weeks later only 34% still breast-fed their babies. Comparable figures have been given by Mellander, Vahlquist, and Mellbin (1959).