Growth and weaning in urban Gambian infants

It is well known that the early childhood years in developing countries are a critical period in terms of survival [1]. We are aware that malnutrition in the preschool child often has its origins in infancy [2]; the beginning of the onslaught of infectious diseases to which young children are subjected is similarly timed. The relationship between these two aspects of impaired health is well documented [3]. One of the best known examples of this nutrition-infection interaction is the inter-relationship between diarrhoeal disease and growth impairment. So striking is the association of this synergistic phenomenon with early feeding patterns that the term ‘weanling diarrhoea’ was coined more than 20 years ago [4].