Reduction of unnecessary intake of water and herbal teas on breast-fed infants: a randomized clinical trial with adolescent mothers and grandmothers.

PURPOSE

To evaluate the efficacy of counseling sessions on breast-feeding for adolescent mothers and maternal grandmothers on the reduction of unnecessary water and herbal teas intake on breast-fed infants.

METHODS

A randomized clinical trial was conducted involving adolescent mothers, newborn infants, and maternal grandmothers allocated into four groups: mother and grandmother not cohabitating, without intervention; mother and grandmother not cohabitating, with intervention directed only toward mother; mother and grandmother cohabitating, without intervention; and mother and grandmother cohabitating, with intervention directed toward both. The intervention consisted of six counseling sessions on breastfeeding: in the maternity ward, and after birth on days 7, 15, 30, 60, and 120 at home. The data about feeding practices were collected by telephone every month until the end of the sixth month of the baby's life. The effect of the intervention was measured by comparing the medians and the survival curves for initiation of water and/or tea intake in the first 6 months of life, and Cox regression was used to estimate its magnitude.

RESULTS

The intervention had a positive effect for the group in which the adolescent mothers cohabitated with the baby's grandmother (hazard ratio = .53; 95% confidence interval = .35-.80), and also for the group in which they did not cohabitate with the baby's grandmother (hazard ratio = .48; 95% confidence interval = .31-.76). By comparing the medians of the time of initiation of water and/or tea intake between control and intervention groups, it was observed that the intervention postponed the use of these liquids in 67 days in the group in which mothers and grandmothers cohabitated and in 44 days in the group in which they did not live together.

CONCLUSION

Multiple counseling sessions on infant feeding in the first 4 months postpartum for adolescent mothers and maternal grandmothers, when they cohabitate, proved to be an effective strategy to postpone the unnecessary water and/or tea intake of breast-fed infants.