Association between trajectories of breastfeeding duration and infant health: Prospective cohort study

Two breastfeeding trajectories—Constant (1522/2548, 60%) and Decreasing (1026/2548, 40%)—were identified in Canadian mother-father-infant triads, with no statistically significant infant health differences between them.

• Why it matters: Breastfeeding is a modifiable pathway, but it is unclear whether different breastfeeding-duration patterns are linked to infant health outcomes over time.
• What they did: From a prospective longitudinal cohort in Canada (2014–2020) of 3217 triads, latent class growth analysis estimated breastfeeding trajectories, and adjusted linear mixed models tested associations with challenging behaviors and emergent visits.
• The result: Decreasing versus Constant breastfeeding showed no statistically significant differences in risk of challenging behaviors (RR -0.006, 95% CI -0.028 to 0.016) or emergent visits (RR -0.015, 95% CI -0.053 to 0.023), suggesting discontinued breastfeeding was not associated with infant health in this cohort.

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