Can parity influence infant feeding in the first six months of life?

Abstract

This article aims to evaluate the influence of parity on breastfeeding and introduction of complementary feeding in children up to six months after childbirth. Longitudinal study conducted through a convenience sample of mother-child pairs, selected at postpartum and accompanied until the sixth month of infant's life, between 2011 and 2016, in Porto Alegre, Brazil. There was an analysis of the time taken in the first feeding after birth, practice and time of breastfeeding, consumption of other types of milk and introduction of complementary feeding. The sample consisted of 161 dyads, with 74 primiparous and 87 multiparous. Multiparous women breastfed their babies sooner in the first 24 hours post-partum (p = 0.019). The offering of other kinds of milk showed no difference in relation to parity, as the moment of introduction to infant nutrition, although both primiparous and multiparous did it before the age of four months. Parity seemed to influence the timing of first breastfeeding offer, but not the introduction of complementary feeding, although this occurred in an early way. In this sense, it is necessary to disseminate more information about breastfeeding and infant feeding during prenatal and childcare, to improve maternal and child health.