Early infant feeding practice: socioeconomic factors and health visiting support

A E While1

  • 1Department of Nursing Studies, King's College, London.

A survey of health visitor and child health clinic records revealed an association between place of residence and socioeconomic factors and early infant feeding practice. Bottle feeding was associated with poor social circumstance while breast feeding was associated with higher social classes and their socioeconomic attributes. Health visiting home support was limited in its extent and there was no statistical evidence of positive discrimination towards bottle- or breast-feeding families. However, breast-feeding parents made significantly greater use of the child health clinics and so sought more health professional support in the early months of their infants' lives.

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