PEDIATRICS Vol. 106 No. 5 Supplement November 2000, pp. 1276-1277
Infant Feeding and Weaning Practices in an Urbanizing Traditional, Hunter-Gatherer Society
School of Public Health Curtin University and Office of Aboriginal Health Health Department of Western Australia Perth, 6004, Australia E-mail: michael.gracey@health.wa.gov.au
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INTRODUCTION |
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INTRODUCTION |
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Over recent decades, urbanization, rapidly changed lifestyles and the adoption of Westernized diets have had profound effects on health in previously traditional societies. In Australian Aborigines, for example, these changes are accompanied by high rates of "lifestyle" diseases such as obesity, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, noninsulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, and renal disease.1 Similar situations exist in other previously traditional societies now in rapid transition, such as in indigenous populations of North and South America, Asia, and in the South Pacific.2
Aboriginal Breastfeeding and Infant Feeding
Breastfeeding was the norm and often prolonged in traditional
societies including Australian Aborigines who were the largest and most
successful hunter-gatherers on earth. In traditional society, infants
were breastfed for at least 2 years but the timing of the
introduction of solids can only be speculated. It is likely that
Aboriginal infants were weaned onto hunted and gathered foods such
as "damper" (a bread made from ground grass




