Attitudes of future mothers regarding infant feeding

Attitudes of 2500 urban college girls from Ludhiana city, aged 15 to 20 years were assessed towards infant feeding using a standardized Likert Scale (r = 0.82). The influence of subject opted in college and the presence of a child less than 3 years in the family on the attitudes was also studied. The overall attitudes of the whole group towards infant feeding were negative. Science students had better attitude scores on most of the themes tested (p < 0.05). The presence of a child aged less than 3 years in the family had no significant influence on the attitudes of girls towards infant feeding. Most of the girls were desirous of studying the concepts of infant feeding in their college curriculum. It is recommended that efforts should be made to incorporate these concepts in the formal educational curriculum so that girls grow up with positive attitude towards infant feeding.