RESUMEN
A cross sectional study was conducted in Jordan during 1981-1983 on 1052 mother-child pairs selected randomly from nine population strata to represent all governorates and four socioeconomic groups : urban economically advantaged, urban lower income, rural and refugees living in camps. The governorates were : Amman, Irbid, Balqa, Karak and Ma'an. The selected children were between 0 and 36 months of age and were the youngest to their mothers at the time of the interview. It was observed that less than 3% of all children had never been breast-fed. Reasons for not breast-feeding were : failure of lactation, baby's refusal of the breast, illness of mother and painful nursing. The study showed that about 50% of the children were breast-fed at 6 months of age and 24% at 12 months. The most frequent reasons given by mothers for stopping breast-feeding were : new pregnancy and insufficient milk. Feeding on demand and frequent feeding were the most popular practices by mothers who were breast-feeding, irrespective of child age. Maternal views on breast-feeding indicated that the vast majority [not less that 90%] of mothers felt that breast-feeding is superior to bottle feeding. 69% of mothers or more were in favor of prolonged east-feeding for 12 months and beyond, and up to five months without supplements. These opinions did not seem to be consistent with the actual practice of breast-feeding. No apparent differences in the opinions or practices of mothers on breast-feeding were observed among the various regions or socioeconomic groups, the economically advantaged group, however, tended to deviate from the others
RESUMEN
Information on dietetics and food services was collected from eleven main hospitals in Jordan regarding qualifications, experience, job description and problems facing dietitians and food service personnel. Data regarding the number of beds and types of diets served in these hospitals were also collected. The distribution of diets in these hospitals as a% of total diets was as follows :- 59.4% regular, 9.0% salt-restriced, 8.5% diabetic, 4.4% high-protein and 3.1% soft. The results showed that there were 39 dietitians with a university degree and 35 technical workers and 183 other workers serving in these hospitals. Overall average of beds per dietitian was 73 [range of 32 to 175]. About half of the dietitians had a work experience of 2-4 years while none of them have had any training course in dietetics since appointment. Problems faced by these dietitians included poor coordination with the physician and nurse, inadequate recognition of the important therapeutic role of the dietitian, and unavailability of local food exchange lists. The present survey emphasizes the need for increasing the number of dietitians and their level of training in many of the Jordanian hospitals, and for a legislation to organize the practice of this profession