Mother's attitudes and behaviour towards infant feeding: an exploratory study in Poland

Abstract

This paper reports on a preliminary and exploratory study on mother's attitudes and behaviour towards infant feeding in Poland. The aim of this study was to explore the impact of demographic and socio-economic factors on mother's choice of breastfeeding and attitude towards baby ready food. Primary cross-sectional data were gathered through a sample survey research. The choice for breastfeeding is found to be associated with lower income, whereas no significant effects of mother age and education are observed. With respect to attitude towards baby ready foods, younger mothers were found to attach significantly more importance to advertising and information on the product label. They also rely more on specialised information from paediatricians with respect to infant feeding. Generally, the findings point towards a greater need for information related to infant feeding among younger and economically less-favoured mothers.