Feeding in young childhood. Diffusion and reception of paediatric standards.

Having studied feeding in young childhood by means of a survey on mothers with children under the age of three, there would appear to be two modes in the diffusion of rules on how to feed infants : a scholarly mode, characterized by very little experience in infant care and the need to inquire through legitimate authorities, which are the paediatrician or paediatric books, found more often amongst women belonging to upper classes; a family mode, characterized by intergenerational transmission of infant care which is more typical of women from the working classes. The opposition between these two modes shows how ambivalent the practice of breast feeding is, corresponding both to scholarly criteria as regards infant feeding and to traditional practice of some fractions of the working classes, and is to be found at both extremities of the social ladder. The results of this study bring one to question the diffusion scheme traditionally used to give the results of paediatric standards application.