RESUMO
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