relationship between patterns of infants' feeding and the occurrence of diarrhea

ABSTRACT

Diarrheal diseases pose a grave health threat on infants and children, they are the leading cause of death among them. One reason for this is the close connection between diarrhea and feeding. The aim of this research was to study the relation between the pattern of infant feeding during the first year of life and the occurrence of diarrhea. The sample comprised 1000 infants from the well baby clinic of el-Shatby University Children's Hospital. El-Raml Children's Hospital and 24 day care centers in Alexandria. The study revealed that diarrhea was less among totally breast fed infants as compared to the mixed and bottle fed ones. Also, the duration of attacks was shorter in breast than in mixed and bottle fed ones. Wrong feeding practice among the bottle and mixed fed babies was related to increased diarrheal attacks