ABSTRACT
The benefits of breastfeeding on infant and child morbidity and mortality are well known since ages. Human milk protectsbreastfed infants against diarrhoeal disease by virtue to its various immunological properties. As diarrhoeal diseases are amajor cause of deaths among children aged 0-12 months, it is important to quantify the preventive effect of breastfeeding ondiarrhoea-specific morbidity and mortality. To assess the breast-feeding practices and its effect on incidence of diarrhoea ininfants in rural Rajasthan. A Prospective study was carried out in Achrol village, field practice area of National Institute ofMedical Science (NIMS) Hospital and Research Centre, Jaipur, over a period of one year. 246 infants were enrolled byconvenience sampling through house to house visits and followed-up on monthly basis to record information on feedingpractices and episodes of diarrhoea by interviewing their mothers. Descriptive statistics were presented as frequencies andpercentages and association between breastfeeding practices and incidence of diarrhoea was found using Chi-square test.48.8% of the infants studied were started on breast feeding between 1-6 hours while only 13% started breastfeeding withinan hour of birth. Majority (66.3%) of infants were denied colostrum feed and 92.68% infants were given pre lacteal feeds asis customary in the area. Among infants who were put on breastfeeding within 1 hour of their birth, 12.2% suffered fromdiarrhoeal where as infants who were started on breast feeding within 1-6 hours, 46.6% reported diarrhoeal episodes duringthe follow up period. This difference in diarrhoeal episodes based on initiation of breastfeeding was found to be statisticallysignificant (p< 0.05). There is enough evidence in favour of breast feeding (exclusive breast feeding for 6 months andcontinued breastfeeding up-to 2 years) as an effective tool against diarrhoeal morbidity in the studied infants.