HONG KONG: Members of the medical fraternity have called for a return to breast-feeding, amid a scandal involving contaminated dairy products from Chinese producers.

"Breast milk has a lot of advantages for infants. It has antibodies and protects children from (gastrointestinal) infections like diarrhoea," Marie Tarrant, assistant professor of nursing studies at the University of Hong Kong, said yesterday.

"The baby grows in a more stable way and is not overweight ... the nutritional content in breast milk changes as the baby grows, unlike formula milk," Tarrant said.