ABSTRACT
The aim of the study was to assess the impact of maternal HIV status on infant feeding patterns. Two hundred eighty mothers (205 HIV uninfected, 75 infected) and their infants were recruited from the Provincial General Hospital, Nakuru, Kenya, from delivery and were followed for 14 weeks. From the feeding patterns, HIV-infected mothers were more likely to exclusively breastfeed in week 1 than HIV-uninfected mothers (71.7% vs 56.3%, P = .001), but there were no differences by week 14 (9.8% vs 4.8% P = .212). Mixed feeding increased for both groups from weeks 1 to 14. In multivariate logistic regression analysis, maternal age (younger mothers, P < .05) was associated with exclusive breastfeeding in the 6th week and infant birth weight (> mean birth weight, P < .05) in the 10th week. The results indicate a need to reassess adherence to infant feeding recommendations irrespective of maternal HIV status and also the infant feeding counseling process in the hospital. J Hum Lact . 24(1):34-41.
