Impact of breast feeding on weight gain, incidence of diarrhoea and ARI infants in the first 4 months of life in the Urban Commumity of Morang District, Nepal.

Abstract

Study design: Comparative cohort study Objectives: 1. To identify the difference in weight gain between exclusive and non exclusive breast fed infants at the end of the first 4 months of life. 2. To identify the difference in episodes of diarrhea and ARI between exclusive and non exclusive breast fed infants at the end of the first 4 months of life. Methodology: The study was conducted in urban community of Biratnagar, Morang District, Nepal between 15th April to October 30th 1995. The target population consisted of all mothers of infants aged between 0 to 4 months. 50 infants whose mothers intended to exclusively breast feed were recruited into the exclusive breast fed group. 50 infants whose mothers did not intend exclusively breast feed were recruited in the non exclusive breast fed group. Age and sex of infants were matched between two groups. They were interviewed by well trained interviewer using structured questionnaire and the infants were followed up to assess the weight gained and episodes of diarrhea and ARI every month interval from 0 to 4 months. Result: The study finding showed the parental characteristics and birth weight were comparable among both groups. The cumulative weight gained of infants from aged 0 to 4 months were 3.05 and 2.53 Kg. in exclusive and non exclusive breast feeding groups respectively So there is 0.52 Kg. higher in weight gained in exclusive than non exclusive breast fed infants. The mean scores of weight gain on infants at aged 1, 2, 3 and 4 months were 0.963+0.123, 0.895+0.198,0.580+0.313 and 0.612+0.303(Kg) among exclusive breast feeding and the mean scores of weight gain of infants at aged 1, 2, 3 and 4 were 0.870+0.166, 0.765+0.222, 0.433+0.000 and 0.471+0.131 (kg) among non exclusive breast feeding. So there was statistically significant difference in weight gain among two groups (p 0.05). Furthermore, there was lower in number of episodes of diarrhea and ARI among exclusive breast fed infants than those non exclusive breastfed infants (p 0.05).