Breastfeeding and feeding practices for infants under six months of age from Alfenas, Minas Gerais, Brazil

Objective This study determined the prevalence of breastfeeding and evaluated the consumption of other foods by infants under six months of age from Alfenas, Minas Gerais. Methods This cross-sectional, epidemiological study included 126 children born in 2008. The infants' caregivers were interviewed at home using the 24hrs recall and other questions to collect information on the infants' diets. The software Epi Info version 6.04 was used to analyze the data. The prevalence of different breastfeeding categories was determined (exclusive breastfeeding, predominant breast feeding, complementary breastfeeding and breastfeeding) based on age group. The Fisher's and chi-square tests were used to investigate possible associations between the variables and breastfeeding. Results The prevalence of breastfeeding in children under six months of age was 37.3%. Semi-solid foods were introduced abundantly during the infants' fifth month of age. In the sixth month, the diet of 50.7% of the children contained complementary foods in addition to breast milk. The prevalence of water, fruit and family food intakes among non-breast fed infants under six months of age was significantly higher that of their breastfed counterparts. There were no significant differences between exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months and the studied maternal variables. Conclusion Although the prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months of an infant's life in Alfenas is higher than that of other cities, it still needs plenty of improvement to meet the recommendation that infants should be exclusively breastfed in that period.