Demand feeding or schedule feeding: Infant growth from birth to 6 months

The present study reports the results of a retrospective examination of infant feeding practices on growth from birth to 6 months. Forty-eight 1-year-old infants were recruited from a paediatric clinic. Based on questionnaire responses regarding the infant's daily eating routine from birth to 6 months, mothers were classified as feeding their infants on demand or on a schedule. Infant weight, body length and head circumference were recorded (raw and percentile rank) from birth, and 2-, 4-, and 6-month-old clinic visits. After adjusting for birth measure differences in separate regression equations for each growth variable, feeding style did not significantly account for variation on later measures. These data suggest that there is no pervasive differential effect of demand vs. schedule feeding on infant growth from birth to 6 months.