[Milk feeding of infants in the Turin district. An epidemiological survey]

A cross section study was performed on 1342 children living in the Turin district to examine the modalities followed for milk-feeding during the first year of life. Children examined had been admitted to the infants' ward of the Pediatric University Clinic of Turin suffering from common illness of early infancy. Mothers were asked to fill in a questionnaire concerning breast-feeding, formula feeding and cow's milk feeding. Data collected show that 75% of infants were exclusively breast-fed at birth, that a large number of infants are already fed cow's milk after the 3rd month of life, that hypoallergenic formulas are overused (18.5% among adapted formulas), and that follow-up formulas are underused. Most of the mothers (74%) say that their dietary choices were made by their physician. These data indicate that infant dietary trends in our district are often not in accordance with scientific recommendations.