The effects of breastfeeding time and feeding habits on primary malnutrition development in 9 months-4 years old children

Abstract

Objective: Infant feeding pattern in the first 1000 days period has significant effect on the growth and development of child. We aimed to investigate the effects of breastfeeding duration and feeding habits on malnutrition.Material and Methods: Patients who were consecutively admitted to the pediatric gastroenterology and pediatric outpatient clinics were included in the study. 250 patients with primary malnutrition and 250 patients without malnutrition were asked to complete questionnaire questioning breast milk intake times and feeding habits.Results: The mean age of the patients with malnutrition was 19.77 ± 9.90 months and 20.584 ± 10.971 months for patients without malnutrition. There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups in terms of age and sex (P = 0.385, P = 0.140, respectively). Only breastfeeding time and total breastfeeding time were significantly lower in malnourished patients (P = <0.001, P = 0.001, respectively). For malnutrition development, we found the minimum cut-off point of breastfeeding time to be ≤ 4.5 months (sensitivity 72%, specificity 54% P = 0.001). We also found that the father was significantly less involved in feeding the baby in the malnutrition group (P = <0.001). We found that the rate of non-self-feeding was higher in malnourished group in children over two years of age (P = <0.001). We found that the age of transition to finger food was higher in the malnutrition group (P = 0.002). We found that the duration of the meal was longer in malnutrition group (P <0.001).Conclusion: Our study shows that the duration of breastfeeding and feeding habits affect malnutrition development.