Exclusive breast feeding and nutritional status of infants

ABSTRACT

A longitudinal study was conducted to assess the nutritional status of 60 breast fed infants [37 females and 23 males] after delivery and up to the age of 6 months from different MCH Centers in rural areas. Weight, length an arm circumference were measured monthly as well as blood samples were collected to etermine hemoglobin and hematocrit. Wight-for-age, height-for-age, arm circumference for-age and incremental data for weight and length gains was used to determine nutritional status. Acute malnutrition tends to occur from about 2 months and 4 months of age among male and female infants respectively. Weight gains of female infants were greater than that of male infants. The sex related differences in length gain is manifested only at 2-4 months increments where it reached to 50 the percentile in male as compared to 5 the perecentile in female infants. Arm circumference-for-age revealed the presence of malnutrition among those infants irrespective of the sex. With the increase in age, the mean no. of epidoes of diarrhea and the average duration per individual per months were increased. Haemoglobin and hematocrit values showed a nor mal physiological pattern. So, growth failure of those infants may result from the prevalence of diarrhea among them as well as from a low quality of breast milk