Breast-feeding and Complementary/Substitutive Feeding during Babies’ 1st Month of Life

Introduction: WHO and Brazilian polices say that breast-feeding offer should be kept exclusively until the baby completes 6 months of life.

Objectives: Characterize the feeding of babies born at Hospital in Porto Alegre, during their 1st month of life.

Methods: It was made a longitudinal study from December 2013 to March 2014, with 99 dyads mother-baby. In the Hospital’s maternity, it was applied a questionnaire created for this research; in the 1st month of the baby’s life, it was made a telephone call to the mother, applying the same instrument. Federal University of Health Sciences of Porto Alegre’s CEP approved the research under number 481.830.

Results: At discharge from the hospital, all babies were exclusively breast-fed. At 1st month, 53.5% (53) were exclusively on breast-feeding, 36.3% (36) were receiving breast-feed complementary with other formulas, and 10.1% (10) were not receiving breast milk. In the complementary/substitutive feeding, 80.4% (37) received formulas, 8.7% (4) received cow milk, 28.2% (13) received water and/or tea, and 6.5% (3) received other foods.

Conclusion: The percentage of babies exclusively on breast-feeding in the line ”good” in OMS pattern (good—from 50 to 89%), but it is far from the wanted of 90% or higher (ideal). Even so, it is a low percentage for a 1st month, for it is known that breast-feeding rates diminish from month to month.

Keywords: breast-feeding, child feeding, speech language pathology.