Adolescent mothers: do they breast-feed less?

Two groups of mothers with infants between sixty and eighty-nine days of age, from the same Health Area of the city of Havana were studied. The first group's age was nineteen years or less and members of the second one were twenty to twenty-five years old. The sociocultural level of the older group was significantly more favourable. The proportion of mothers exclusively breast-feeding was lower among the teenagers, and the frequency of complete weaning by the end of the third month was higher in their group. Duration of breast-feeding, either exclusive or combined with bottle-feeding was also shorter in the group of adolescent mothers, and frequency of diarrheal episodes was higher among their infants; body weight for age and body weight for length showed a shift towards lower percentile channels in these infants. Such differences were evident despite of that both groups of mothers had the same opportunity to receive information about the advantages of breast-feeding and there were no differences in the frequency and quality of prenatal care.