Effect of feeding-type on the nutritional status of infants in urban and rural area

ABSTRACT

Breast feeding is widely accepted to be the optimal source of nutrition for infants, which providing them with suitable nutrients for growth, development and immune protection. The aim of this study was to compare between different type of feeding and nutritional status and development of infants in urban and rural area in El-Gharbia governement.100 infants and their mothers were chosen randomly from m.c.h. centers. Data were collected from mothers and anthropometric measurements were used to measure nutritional status of infants during vaccines time [2, 4.6.9.12 months] Physical development was followed in the same time. The results showed that 45%of infants were boys and 55% were girls,83%of infants were breastfed 7% were artificial feeding, and 10% were mixed feeding .The mothers of most breast feeding infants [88.37%] were either intermediate or highly educated. Regarding to nutritional status, there was 2%of infants were under weight [weight/age], 8% infants were wasting and 8% were overweight [weight/height] Underweight was found among 14.28% of artificial feeding infants, but not found among breast-feeding infants, while wasting was found among 28.56% of artificial feeding and 30% of mixed feeding. The differences in nutritional status by type of feeding were not significant. All children were anemic in both rural and urban areas .For physical development it was found that breastfeeding infants starting in sitting down, crawling and walking earlier than artificial and mixed feeding infants. The results of this study illustrated that breast-feeding is widely accepted in El-Gharbia -Egypt than other studies before. We can conclude that breast feeding is more suitable for infant's growth and development than other type of feeding