Relationship of feeding behavior with nourishing and developing status of infants

Yuanyuan YANG; Yi WANG; Wenfang YANG; Zhouqi YANG; Xiaomian SUN; Liming LIU

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND:

There are less researches on the relationship of parents'feeding behavior with nourishing and developing status of infants.

OBJECTIVE:

To study the relationship between the parents' feeding behavior and the nourishing and developing status of infants.

DESIGN:

A cross-sectional study.

SETTING:

Center of Maternal and Children' s Health,the First Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University.

PARTICIPANTS:

The study was carried out during January to December in 2002,at the Center of Maternal and Children' s Health,The First Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University. A total of 346 infants,aged 0 to 18 months old,were selected from the Fuping county and Chengcheng county of Weinan area by using the stratified duster sampline method. Inclusive criteria infants with the gestation period between 37 to 42 weeks,without obvious diseases,no congenital abnormality; Exclusive criteria infants with congenital disease or abnormality. Totally 324 infants,who were in accordance with the above criteria,were divided into 5 groups according to their month age.

METHODS:

The nursing persons of the infants were called at their houses,and the self-designed "Investigation Tables on Infant's Nutrition"were filled out.MAIN OUTCOME

MEASURES:

① Status of slight malnutrition of infants of different month ages; ② Status of nutrition and development of infants,within 4 months, with different feeding behaviors; ③ Effects of beginning time,quality and frequency of complementary food on the nourishing and developing status of infants.

RESULTS:

In the first 4 months after birth,the rate of breast-feeding was high and the nourishing status of the infants was good. But the nourishing and developing status of infants became comparatively worse after 4 months age,because of inappropriate complementary food. As compared the slight malnutrition infants with normal infants,there were significant differences in the beginning time and kinds of complementary food(P<0.01).

CONCLUSION:

There is close relationship of the feeding behaviors with the nourishing and developing status of the infants.