Infant feeding practices among low-income Mexican urban women: a four month follow-up

We studied the infant feeding practices of 61 healthy women who delivered vaginally and without complications in two public hospitals in the city of Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico. During the hospital stay, 51% of the women were planning full breastfeeding (full-BF), 43% partial breastfeeding (partial-BF) and 6% exclusive formula feeding (FF). At 2 weeks and 4 months post-partum (pp) the predominant feeding modes were partial-BF (59%) and FF (61%) respectively. The parameters that were positively associated with any breastfeeding at 4 months pp were: social support, previous breastfeeding experience and neonatal feeding mode. The infant feeding policies in both hospitals were not conducive for breastfeeding. The majority of infants were already receiving solid foods and juices by 3 months pp.