Abstract
A prospective cohort study of 1,520 mothers from Zhejiang province of China was undertaken to determine the duration of breastfeeding and associated factors during the first six months postpartum. Most (95.3%) mothers had introduced complementary foods by six months, making them at risk from contaminated infant formula. The mean duration of'any breastfeeding' was greater than 180 days but only 48 days for 'exclusive breastfeeding'. Factors relating to cessation of any breastfeeding were maternal age, timing of the breastfeeding decision, admission of the infant to a special-care nursery, return of the mother to work, the early introduction of water and/or other complementary foods, and their location of residence. The introduction of infant formula before three months was positively associated with the late decision to breastfeed, births in city, and infants being given a prelacteal feed. To combat the melamine disaster, strategies to improve the duration of breastfeeding must be developed taking these factors into account.
Highlights
A recent market report concluded that the production of infant formula in the world was 907,000 tonnes during 2008, and the market is still growing rapidly
China is the largest market for infant formula in the world, a market shared by the major companies for multi-national formula and about 150 local producers
The recent contamination of infant formula with melamine in China has caused a public-health crisis, with reports of at least 50,000 infants admitted to hospitals with renal stones [2]
Summary
A recent market report concluded that the production of infant formula in the world was 907,000 tonnes during 2008, and the market is still growing rapidly. The recent contamination of infant formula with melamine in China has caused a public-health crisis, with reports of at least 50,000 infants admitted to hospitals with renal stones [2]. Breastfeeding has been emphasized in public-health programmes by the Chinese Ministry of Health, over the past two decades. It was the centre piece of the “National Program of Action for Child Development in China in the 1990’s” issued in 1994 [8]. The rates of exclusive breastfeeding on discharge— 38% in city, 63.4% in suburban, and 61% in rural areas—differed significantly among the three locations. The mean ages for the introduction of infant formula were 3.3 (city), 4.7 (suburban), and 4.4 (rural) months (Table 3)
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