Study Urges Revision of Six-Month Breast-Feeding Recommendations Four researchers in Scotland say that revising the recommendation that mothers breast-feed exclusively for six months might ultimately result in more breast-feeding. Dr. Pat Hoddinot, from the University of Aberdeen, and three co-authors spent six months regularly interviewing a small number of women and their partners for a study published online in the British medical journal Open. Their questions focused on the families" experiences with breast-feeding, and with the health care providers who encouraged them to breast-feed exclusively for six months (as recommended by the World Health Organization and other pediatric and maternal care providers). What they found, after 220 interviews within 34 families, was that while "six months" has become a magic number for health care providers, it means far less to new parents, and the focus on that goal may be eliminating opportunities to help families continue breast-feeding at "pivot points" in their lives. Research results from Scotland, and particularly from such a small group of subjects, might not normally merit much attention in the United States, but this discussion makes sense, and it echoes so much of what I've heard, anecdotally, from new mothers here in the United States. Health care providers are focused on keeping the nursing going, while mothers and their partners are just trying to figure out the best way to fit a new baby into a happy family life. These research subjects described moments (dubbed pivot points by the researchers) when mothers made the choice to end exclusive breast-feeding. Dr. Hoddinot and her colleagues noted a similarity: "When physical, emotional or social difficulties arise in the first six months after birth, parents believe that changing the feeding behavior is one of the few immediate actions within their control that might restore their primary goal of family well-being." Pivot points, they found, "are common at around four months, if babies change their crying, feeding or sleep behaviors. Even parents who have "persevered" with their ideals may reach a point when they introduce formula or solids earlier than planned in search of the immediate gain of a more settled contented baby, relief from their anxiety and more sleep." It's that difference in goals - family well-being, versus exclusive breast-feeding for six months - that Dr. Hoddinot and her colleagues suggest might be the right target for change. Their paper isn't really about breast-feeding, but about communication. "Six months exclusive breast-feeding," they write, "is considered unrealistic and unachievable by many families and promoting this is perceived as setting parents up to fail." Instead, why not change the goals, tailor the conversations according to a family's needs, and work together to maximize an infant's time at the breast? That sounds like a standard that would improve health outcomes in any country.