Infant feeding practices in Papua New Guinea

Concern about a possibly increasing prevalence of bottle-feeding led in 1995 to an Infant Feeding Survey of 1822 mothers attending urban health facilities. Infant feeding practices including feeding of colostrum, exclusive breastfeeding, weaning practices and bottle-feeding were assessed. This revealed that 28.8% of mothers had not given colostrum to their babies, that 43.5% of 3-month-old babies were exclusively breastfed, and that solids were introduced before 4 months of age in over half of the study population. Bottle-feeding was used by 20% of the study population. Feeding practices differed in women of Highlands and of Coastal origin. The findings emphasize the need to strengthen health education programmes which take into account the mothers' different cultural backgrounds. The issue of breast-feeding by mothers in paid employment needs to be addressed.