HABITS AND ATTITUDES OF MOTHERS OF INFANTS IN RELATION TO BREASTFEEDING AND ARTIFICIAL FEEDING IN 11 BRAZILIAN CITIES

To analyze the relationship between habits and attitudes of mothers and the types of milk offered to their children in their first two years of life.

Retrospective study including 773 interviews of mothers from 11 Brazilian cities with children under 2 years of age. Interviews were conducted in 11 cities of Brazil. The following factors were analyzed: breastfeeding method planned during pregnancy and the method actually applied after birth; type(s) of milk(s) used on the day of the interview and earlier; age at which the child was introduced to whole milk; and source of advice used to choose a certain type of milk.

Breast milk was offered to 81.7% of infants during their first six months of life, to 52.2% of infants during their second semester (p<0.001) and to 32.9% of infants during their second year of life (p<0.001). In contrast, cow's milk consumption increased from 31.1 to 83.8% (p<0.001) and 98.7% (p=0.05), respectively, for these three age groups. Infant (15.0%) and follow-on (also known as toddler's) (2.3%) formulas were used by a much smaller number of infants than whole cow's milk. Most mothers were not prescribed whole cow's milk. Pediatricians were the health care professionals who most often recommended infant formulas.

Rates of breastfeeding in Brazil remain below recommended levels. Brazilian mothers often decide to feed their infants with whole cow's milk on their own initiative. The use of infant formulas after weaning is still too low.