White Jane M
Glasgow Caledonian University.
Community Pract. 2009 Dec;82(12):34-7.
Appropriate nutrition during infancy is essential for optimal growth and development, and when solid food is introduced is recognised as important. Guidelines recommend that infants start weaning from six months. This locally-based study aimed to investigate parental decisions to start weaning. A postal questionnaire was sent to 203 families with infants aged between seven and 10 months. Weaning earlier than the recommendations was common--by the age of four months, more than half of infants had commenced weaning. Considerable social patterning of feeding practices was found, with those living in socially deprived circumstances least likely to follow the guidelines. The most common reported reasons for weaning were internal factors including the perception that the infant was ready. The majority of the respondents had received or sought a form of formal advice from their health visitor. Although receiving information was not associated with the timing of weaning, when the advice was delivered was significantly associated with when solids were reportedly introduced. Further research is needed to confirm the findings of this study.
婴儿期适当的营养对于最佳生长发育至关重要，并且何时引入固体食物被认为很重要。指南建议婴儿从六个月开始断奶。这项基于当地的研究旨在调查父母开始断奶的决定。向203个有7至10个月大婴儿的家庭发送了邮政调查问卷。早于建议时间断奶很常见——到四个月大时，超过一半的婴儿已经开始断奶。研究发现喂养方式存在相当大的社会模式差异，生活在社会贫困环境中的人最不可能遵循指南。报告的最常见断奶原因是内部因素，包括认为婴儿已准备好。大多数受访者从健康访视员那里获得或寻求了某种形式的正式建议。虽然获得信息与断奶时间无关，但建议的传达时间与据报道引入固体食物的时间显著相关。需要进一步研究来证实本研究的结果。
