Infant feeding in two rural Brazilian communities

The feeding practices of 76 infants in two rural communities in Piracicaba, a city in the state of Sao Paulo, were analyzed. Home interviews were conducted using 24-hour dietary recall, as well as some questions about the attitudes of mothers in relation to feeding. Diets were found to be deficient in both of the communities, especially in terms of food energy, iron and niacin, with greater diversity in the diet of families of higher per-capita income. In both of the communities, quality was the factor considered most important in the purchase of food, although in the poorer neighborhood, the product yield was also important. Commercial baby foods were never used in the suburb of Santa Olimpia, due to a lack of confidence of the mothers in relation to such products, and in the suburb of Anhumas, price was the limiting factor. All mothers presented a reasonable knowledge of nutritional information.381355

Prevalência da amamentação em crianças menores de dois anos vacinadas nos centros de saúde escola Breastfeeding prevalence among children less than two years old immunized in primary health care school services

OBJETIVO: Neste trabalho foi desenvolvido estudo transversal com o objetivo de verificar a prevalência da amamentação em 1 708 crianças menores de dois anos em Campinas, São Paulo. MÉTODOS: As informações sobre idade, sexo, serviço de saúde utilizado e alimentação foram obtidas por entrevistas com mães ou responsáveis durante a Campanha de Multivacinação de 2001. A amamentação foi classificada como exclusiva, predominante (incluindo outros líquidos, exceto leites), complementar (incluindo outros alimentos e/ou leites) e total (soma de exclusivo, predominante e complementar). RESULTADOS: A análise demonstrou que a mediana de amamentação exclusiva foi de 68 dias e a de amamentação total foi de 6,4 meses. No primeiro semestre de vida, 38,1% das crianças estavam em amamentação exclusiva; 23,0% em predominante e 14,9% em complementar. No segundo semestre, 36,5% das crianças recebiam leite materno; no terceiro 26,4% e no quarto 13,9%. Crianças usuárias dos serviços públicos e das unidades locais de saúde apresentaram menor risco de desmame do que as usuárias dos serviços privados e de serviços não locais (p<0,005). CONCLUSÃO: Salienta-se a necessidade de estabelecimento de metas visando à amamentação exclusiva até seis meses de idade e total até dois anos ou mais, conforme recomendação da Organização Mundial da Saúde e do Ministério da Saúde.<br>OBJECTIVE: A cross-sectional survey was developed aiming to identify the prevalence of breastfeeding among children aged 0-2 years living in Campinas, Sao Paulo state, Brazil. METHODS: Data on age, sex, health care service used and feeding were obtained by interviewing the mothers or caregivers of 1,708 children during the National Immunization Campaign in 2001. Breastfeeding was classified as exclusive, predominant (including others liquids, except milks), complementary (including others foods and/or others milks) and total (sum of exclusive, predominant and complementary). RESULTS: The median exclusive breastfeeding was 68 days and median total breastfeeding was 6.4 months. In the first semester of life, 38.1% of the children were exclusively breastfed, 23.0 predominantly and 14.9% complementary breastfed. In the second semester, 36.5% of the children were breastfed, in the third 26.4% and in the fourth semester 13.9%. Children who used public and local health care services were less likely to be weaned than the users of private and non-local health care services (p<0.005). CONCLUSION: This article emphasizes the need to establish goals for exclusive breastfeeding up to 6 months of age and for total breastfeeding up to 2 years of age or more, according to the recommendations of the World Health Organization and the Brazilian Ministry of Health