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The introduction of solid food to an infant is usually addressed in terms of a “correct” time for introduction. There is usually also a discussion of “appropriate” foods which may be introduced to the infant; these foods will change according to prevailing health priorities. Concentrates on the contribution made by the infant to the timing and type of the first foods introduced. Places emphasis on the development of the infant′s taste preferences which determine the infant′s response to foods which may be offered by the parent.

Gives a brief overview of a national survey conducted by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food of the diets of 488 infants aged 6 to 12 months from Britain. Presents selected information on the amounts of foods eaten by older infants and the nutrients obtained from them, and explores the adequacy of the infants′ diet.

Reviews the various ways of feeding infants from birth to one year since what an infant eats at this stage in life is crucial to his/her future health. Critically discusses the various practices of feeding infants, which are breast‐feeding, artificial feeding, mixed feeding, and weaning. Reports on the investigations done in various countries of Europe, North America, some countries in South America, Africa and Asia. Suggests the proper ways of infant feeding based on the investigations and recommendations from WHO and UNESCO; then concludes that breast‐feeding is the best method of infant feeding and the best time to start weaning infants is between five and six months old.

Choice of weaning and infant foods was established among a group of 56 mothers resident in Edinburgh who had infants under 18 months of age. The survey looked at the use of commercial and home‐made infant foods and aimed to identify the factors which influenced the decision to use commercial or homemade foods during weaning. Results indicate that, while convenience and perceived suitability for infants are a major factor in the decision to use commercial infant foods, first or only children are much more likely to be fed commercial infant foods. Mothers who were employed outside the home did not use commercial baby foods more than mothers who were at home with their children and, although older mothers were slightly more likely to make infant foods in the home, the differences were not statistically significant. While further work is essential to establish a nationwide view, these provisional results provide further insight into factors which affect choice of infant foods.

The purpose of this paper is to present anthropometric measurements on 42 premature infants nursed in the neonatal intensive care unit of Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong.

Birth information, including maturity, age, gender, birth weight and present weight, were recorded. About 13 body size measurements, including stature, hand girth, armscye girth, chest girth, arm length, max girth, abdomen girth, hand length, thigh girth, shoulder width, head to nape length, inside leg to heel length and foot length, were measured for each infant. Using these data, the body size distribution, the correlation between each body size measurement, and linear regressions of present weight and stature with other body size measurement were analyzed.

It was found that present weight and stature of premature infants were the most desirable and significant size parameters for the development of a measurement chart for premature infants.

The paper provides anthropometric measurement details of premature infants.

Despite the long-established importance of infant mental health, internationally this has not been mirrored in the provision of infant mental health services. Within Scotland in the UK, there has been significant recent government investment in developing infant mental health services. However, existing research identifies a massive knowledge and skills gap that could create barriers to implementation. This study aims to use qualitative methods to consider the views of relevant professional stakeholders on education and training within infant mental health.

The authors completed semi-structured interviews with 14 professional stakeholders working in a health board in Scotland. This study used purposive sampling to include a broad range of professionals across health and social care services and analysed the resulting data using Braun and Clarke’s (2006) methodology. This study adopted a reflexive stance throughout, including the research team interviewing each other as part of the process.

Within the theme of education and training, we identified four sub-themes. These included roles for public health and societal education, training for parents, training for professionals and increasing professionals’ experience of infant mental health.

The issues identified are relevant in any area of the UK or internationally in considering the role of education and training in developing and maintaining new infant mental health services. Further research with families and with wider groups of professional stakeholders would be of further benefit.

Safe haven laws arose as a compassionate response to the perceived increase in the number of mothers who killed their infants or abandoned them in unsafe places, such a dumpsters, toilets, outdoors, etc. (Appell, 2002b; Sanger, 2006). The policy problem of infant abandonment arrived on the local policy agenda in Mobile, Alabama in 1997 and early 1998. During that time, 20 infants were reported abandoned. In one case, a mother and grandmother drowned an hour-old infant in a toilet, and each received a 25-year prison sentence (Sanger, 2006). In response to this case, the program called “A Secret Safe Place for Newborns” was established. Prosecutors promised anonymity and immunity if the infant was relinquished unharmed. In 1999 Texas also experienced a surge in abandoned babies – 13 were abandoned in a 10-month period, 3 of whom died. Texas' Baby Moses Law was the nation's first safe haven law passed in 1999. Within two years, dozens of states passed safe haven laws with little debate, analysis, or opposition (Baran, 2003; Sanger, 2006). In order to reduce the occurrences of neonaticide and infanticide in which infants were left to die, all 50 states in the United States have passed safe haven laws.

Throughout human history and around the world, co-sleeping was the context for human evolutionary development. Currently, most of the world’s peoples continue to practice co-sleeping with infants, but there is increasing pressure on families in the West not to co-sleep. Research from anthropology, family studies, medicine, pediatrics, psychology, and public health is reviewed through the lens of a developmental theory to place co-sleeping within a developmental, theoretical context for understanding it. Viewing co-sleeping as a family choice and a normative, human developmental context changes how experts may provide advice and support to families choosing co-sleeping, especially in families making the transition to parenthood. During this transition, many decisions are made by parents “intuitively” (Ball, Hooker, & Kelly, 1999), making understanding the developmental consequences of some of those choices even more important. In Western culture, families are making “intuitive” decisions that research has shown to be beneficial, but families are not receiving complete messages about benefits and risks of co-sleeping. Co-sleeping can be an important choice for families as they make the life-changing transition to parenthood, if individualized messages about safe infant sleep practices (directed toward their individual family circumstances) are shared with them.

Introduction: The birth of a preterm child requires hospitalization in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), which is a very stressful experience for parents. Aim: To determine the stress level of parents of preterm babies admitted to intensive and sub-intensive units in two hospitals in Northern Italy and its association with their sociodemographic variables and the clinical conditions of their newborns.

The sampling was non-probabilistic and included parents of preterm babies admitted to intensive and/or sub-intensive care for at least 10 days. Instruments: (1) information deduced from the clinical record of preterm newborns; (2) sociodemographic determinants of parents' well-being deduced from a questionnaire; (3) parental stress scale: neonatal intensive care unit (PSS:NICU), which measures the perception of parents about stressors from the physical and psychological environment of the NICU.

Results: A total of 104 parents of 59 hospitalized preterm babies participated in the study. The average parental stress level was 1.87 ± 0.837. The subscale score that got higher was parent-infant relationship subscale. Concerning the infant characteristics, the birth weight of the babies and the length of their hospitalization affected the parents' stress level. Looking at parents' sociodemographic characteristics instead, the greater predictors were gender, age and occupational social class.

The parental role alteration caused by infant premature birth and consequent hospitalization is a major stressor for parents and in particular for mothers. The variables that resulted positively associated with higher stress in parents of preterm infants hospitalized are specific parental characteristics, including not adequately or previously studied ones, and infant characteristics.

The purpose of this study is to determine the temperature ratings of infant bedding.

Mathematical models were developed for predicting temperature ratings of infant bedding for all age groups based on the thermal balance equation. These models were validated by the published physiological data and the baby manikin tests. The air temperature was compared with the predicted temperature rating, and the skin temperature of infant or baby manikin was used to explain the validation results.

The models had higher prediction accuracy, especially for the infant bedding with uniformly distributed thermal insulation. The results showed that an increase of 1 clo in thermal insulation caused a decrease of 4.2–6.0 °C in temperature rating. The slope of the model reduced with the increasing month-age, indicating that an older infant had a lower temperature rating than a younger infant.

Suggestions were given for caregivers that younger infants ought to be covered with more bedding than adults; however, older infants were expected to require less bedding.

The outcomes provided scientific guidelines on the selection of bedding for infants at a particular room temperature to ensure the health and safety of infants.