ABSTRACT
This is a prospective study involving ninety-two lactating mother- infant pairs in the first six months of birth. They were followed-up up to six months for various perinatal factors determining the duration of exclusive breastfeeding. Early postpartum mother-baby skin-to-skin contact had a powerful influence (P<0.001) over the duration of exclusive breastfeeding up to 4-6 months and was found to be more significant than early initiation of breastfeeding (P<0.05). Mode of delivery did not have any significant effect (P<0.5) over the duration of exclusive breastfeeding. Thus health care centers can easily adopt a policy to allow few minutes of early postpartum mother-baby skin-to-skin contact and early initiation of breastfeeding to all vaginal as well as caesarian deliveries to promote breastfeeding.
Subject(s)
Breast Feeding/psychology , Maternal Behavior/psychology , Mother-Child Relations , Mothers/psychology , Object Attachment , Adult , Female , Humans , Infant, Newborn , Postpartum Period , Prospective Studies , Time FactorsABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To assess the relation between lower respiratory tract infection and feeding pattern in infancy. SETTING: Hospital based descriptive. METHODS: Two hundred and five infants presenting with lower respiratory infection (LRTI) admitted in the ward were studied over a period of one year. Criteria for the clinical diagnosis of LRTI were based on the lines of TUCSON CHILDREN RESPIRATORY STUDY. RESULTS: Forty three percent of LRTI in infancy were seen in age group of 0 to 3 months. Sixty percents of pre-lacteal feeding and 71% of bottle-feeding were observed. Late introduction of solid food was very commonly practiced. In 64.7% solid food was introduced at the age of 9 to 12 months. Fifty three percent of LRTI were associated with diarrhoea, which was the commonest factor associated with mortality due to LRTI. There was male preponderance with male:female = 2.8:1(P value <0.001), which is highly significant. Mixed feeding/artificial feeding had more incidence of LRTI than exclusively breast-fed children (1.7:1) and the mortality rate was 10 times more in mixed/artificial fed infants than exclusively breast fed infants.
