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Babies, breast implants and bad hospital food

Our roundup of the health news headlines on Wednesday 11 January.

Sick of your screaming newborn? Babies fed on formula milk are less grumpy, easier to put to sleep and smile and laugh more than their breast-fed counterparts, according to a study published in the Daily Mail.

However, Medical Research Council researchers insist that the irritability connected with breast-feeding is natural and part of the process that babies seek attention and bond with their mothers. The docility found with formula milk comes is likely to be because they have eaten too much, and so will gain weight too quickly.

From breast feeding to breast implants, all the papers reported on the disparity in service across Britain when it comes to removal of the faulty PIP-brand fillets. To have your faulty breast implants replaced on the NHS, move to Wales, as it is the only area in Britain offering this service for the 2,000 women effected. Those in Scotland will be removed if ‘clinically necessary' whilst poor English recipients can have their implants removed on the NHS, if their private clinic refuses to do so, but will have to fight their private clinics for an exchange procedure if they want them replaced.

There is also a disparity in how much money hospitals spend on meals for patients, The Guardian reports. Thirty hospital trusts, almost one in ten of the total, spend less than £5 a day for all three meals for patients. Head of the Patients Association, Katherine Murphy, warns that cutting costs on food is a false economy and will keep patients in hospital longer.


          

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