UCD School of Public Health and Population Science, University College Dublin, Dublin, Republic of Ireland.
BMC Public Health. 2010 Apr 21;10:201. doi: 10.1186/1471-2458-10-201.
For the purposes of this paper "weaning is defined as the introduction of the first solid foods to infants". Global recommendations by the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommend that all infants be exclusively breast-fed for the first six months of life. No global recommendations have been made for formula fed infants. In Europe it is recommended that weaning foods should be introduced between 18 weeks and 26 weeks regardless of whether infants are breast or formula fed. In the United Kingdom it is recommended that solids be introduced at around six-months for both breast and formula fed infants. In Ireland official guidelines recommend that breast fed infants should be introduced solids at 6 months of age while for formula fed infants the recommendation is for 4 months. The disparity between these global, European, UK and local recommendations may be a source of confusion for parents and health care professional based in Ireland. Emerging evidence suggests that babies in Ireland are given solid foods before the recommended age but there has been little investigation of the weaning advice provided by health professionals. Since community health professionals have routine parent interactions in the pre-weaning and early-weaning period and hence are in a unique position to positively influence parental weaning decisions, this study aimed to explore their knowledge, attitudes and advice practices about weaning.
A mixed-methods approach was used for the research, commencing with a multi-disciplinary focus group to guide and develop a questionnaire. Questionnaires were then distributed in a postal survey to General Practitioners (GPs) (n 179), Practice Nurses (PNs) (n 121), Public Health Nurses (PHNs) (n 107) and Community Dietitians (CDs) (n 8).
The results indicate varying levels of knowledge of official weaning recommendations and a variety of advice practices. CDs and PHNs acknowledged a clear role in providing weaning advice while demonstrating high confidence levels in providing this advice. However, 19% of PNs and 7% of GP respondents did not acknowledge that they have a role in providing weaning advice to parents; even though Health Service Executive (HSE) written literature given to parents states that they should seek information from PNs and GPs.
Small pockets of misinformation about the introduction of solid foods persist amongst health professionals which may lead to inconsistent advice for parents. Further research is needed.
本文中“断奶”的定义为向婴儿引入第一种固体食物。世界卫生组织（WHO）的全球建议是，所有婴儿在前 6 个月内应完全母乳喂养。对于配方奶喂养的婴儿，尚未提出全球建议。在欧洲，无论婴儿是母乳喂养还是配方奶喂养，都建议在 18 周到 26 周之间引入断奶食品。在英国，建议母乳喂养和配方奶喂养的婴儿在 6 个月大时引入固体食物。在爱尔兰，官方指南建议母乳喂养的婴儿在 6 个月大时引入固体食物，而对于配方奶喂养的婴儿，建议在 4 个月大时引入。这些全球、欧洲、英国和当地建议之间的差异可能会给爱尔兰的父母和医疗保健专业人员带来困惑。新出现的证据表明，爱尔兰的婴儿在推荐年龄之前就开始食用固体食物，但对卫生专业人员提供的断奶建议的调查甚少。由于社区卫生专业人员在断奶前和早期断奶期间与父母有常规互动，因此他们处于积极影响父母断奶决策的独特位置，本研究旨在探讨他们对断奶的知识、态度和建议做法。
本研究采用混合方法，首先进行多学科焦点小组讨论，以指导和制定问卷。然后，向全科医生（GPs）（n=179）、执业护士（PNs）（n=121）、公共卫生护士（PHNs）（n=107）和社区营养师（CDs）（n=8）分发了邮寄调查问卷。
结果表明，对官方断奶建议的了解程度各不相同，建议做法也多种多样。CDs 和 PHNs 承认在提供断奶建议方面发挥了明确作用，并且对提供此建议的信心水平很高。然而，19%的 PNs 和 7%的 GP 受访者不承认他们在向父母提供断奶建议方面有作用；尽管向父母提供的 HSE 书面文献指出，他们应该向 PNs 和 GPs 寻求信息。
在卫生专业人员中，关于固体食物引入的错误信息仍然存在，这可能导致向父母提供的建议不一致。需要进一步研究。
