| Autor: |
El Mouzan Mohammad, Al Omar Ahmad, Al Salloum Abdulla, Al Herbish Abdulla, Qurachi Mansour |
| Jazyk: |
angličtina |
| Rok vydání: |
2009 |
| Předmět: |
|
| Zdroj: |
Annals of Saudi Medicine, Vol 29, Iss 1, Pp 20-23 (2009) |
| Druh dokumentu: |
article |
| ISSN: |
0256-4947 |
| Popis: |
Background and Objective: The WHO recommends exclusive breastfeeding in the first 6 months of life. Our objective was to evaluate trends in infant nutrition in Saudi Arabia and the degree of compliance with WHO recommendations. Subjects and Methods: A nationwide nutritional survey of a sample of Saudi households was selected by the multistage probability sampling procedure. A validated questionnaire was administered to mothers of chil--dren less than 3 years of age. Results: Of 5339 children in the sample, 4889 received breast milk at birth indicating a prevalence of initia--tion of 91.6%. Initiation of breastfeeding was delayed beyond 6 hours after birth in 28.1% of the infants. Bottle feeding was introduced by 1 month of age to 2174/4260 (51.4%) and to 3831/4260 (90%) by 6 months of age. The majority of infants 3870/4787 (80.8%) were introduced to "solid foods" between 4 to 6 months of age and whole milk feedings were given to 40% of children younger than 12 months of age. Conclusions: The current practice of feeding of Saudi infants is very far from compliance with even the most conservative WHO recommendations of exclusive breastfeeding for 4 to 6 months. The high prevalence of breastfeeding initiation at birth indicates the willingness of Saudi mothers to breastfeed. However, early intro--duction of complementary feedings reduced the period of exclusive breastfeeding. Research in infant nutrition should be a public health priority to improve the rate of breastfeeding and to minimize other inappropriate practices. |
| Databáze: |
Directory of Open Access Journals |
| Externí odkaz: |
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