PRÁTICAS ALIMENTARES NOS PRIMEIROS TRÊS MESES DE VIDA DAS CRIANÇAS NASCIDAS NA CIDADE DE PELOTAS, RS

by Wrege Mascarenhas, Maria Laura

Objective: Evaluate feeding practices in the first three months of babies born in a city located in the south of BrazilMethods: Cohort prospective study, involving babies born between September 2002 and May 2003 in the city of Pelotas, and followed until the age of three months.Results: In the first month, 60% of the babies were in exclusive breastfeeding, 16% in predominant breastfeeding and 10% were not. In the third month, exclusive breastfeeding was present in 39% of the sample and almost one third was not being breastfed anymore. After a multivariate analysis using logistic regression, the detected factors associated to absence of exclusive breastfeeding in the first month were: paternal level of education and pacifier use. Maternal labor and pacifier use showed strong association with the absence of exclusive breastfeeding in the third month. The early use of pacifier and early introduction of water/teas occurred, being 55% and 16% found respectively in the first month.Conclusions: Exclusive breastfeeding presents low rates in our environment. The identification of the factor that can interfere in this well-accepted practice of feeding babies is fundamental. Public health services, through implementation maternal breastfeeding promotion policies and the commitment of all health team should review their practices towards the attention to the mother and the newborn so that effective measures of support can be adopted and orientation to women who are breastfeeding given.