Development supervision and feeding in the first year of life

Both child growth follow-up and feeding and nutrition issues are main activities in the Child Health and Development Supervision Program in Primary Care Pediatrics. In the first part of this article, normal growth parameters and their variability for the breastfed child are reviewed. Its knowledge will enable the clinician to detect pathologic deviations from normality due to feeding problems or underlying illness and also to prevent overzealous however incorrect measures. Adequate management of certain situations which compromise breastfed infant growth and development are then tackled. In the second part of the article appropriate complementary feeding issues are dealt with. Because adequate nutrition during the first two years of life are crucial to ensure optimal growth and development and to prevent early and late disease, the introduction of new foods in the diet of the breastfed infant are very important issues which have resulted in recent scientific evidence reviews and European and international recommendations. The article summarizes these and also tries to dismantle certain frequent myths still present in popular knowledge and in the recommendations given by some health workers.