When her first son was born Vicky Bevan had an uphill struggle to persuade health visitors that he was not too skinny.

'Tom had put on lots of weight at first, but then he was beginning to slim down. He seemed absolutely fine to me, his build was lean like the rest of the family.'

But Ms Bevan, from Lincolnshire, came under pressure to tackle his weight. 'I was told to feed him up, to put butter into his food, to use formula. I resisted because it didn't feel right.'

Tom, now seven, is healthy and fit, as is his sister, Olivia, five, and two-year-old brother William. Their mother breast-fed them all for six months. All of the children appeared thin, but she resisted the urge to turn to formula milk to put on extra pounds.

'I know what my family's body shape was, and they all seemed to fit it. They all seemed pretty healthy to me, so I saw no reason to give up on the breast-feeding,' she said. 'Breast milk has more calories than baby rice anyway, so it seemed sensible to stick with it.'

She was given support from the National Childbirth Trust which, she said, persuaded her to carry on feeding the children as she wanted to.

'You need someone to turn to who can talk to you about it, but for a lot of women there is no support. No wonder so many mothers get disheartened and switch to a bottle as soon as they have a problem.'