Health professionals as sources of infant nutrition information for Metropolitan Toronto mothers.

Guidelines for professionals counselling mothers of newborns and infants were established by the Canadian Pediatric Society's Nutrition Committee in 1979. To determine the role of health professionals in providing infant nutrition information, 404 mothers of infants were interviewed between July 1984 and February 1985 in Metropolitan Toronto. Their primary sources for information on infant nutrition were prenatal classes, hospitals (post-delivery), and public health nurses, family physicians and pediatricians, postnatally. Dietitian/nutritionists, family physicians, pediatricians and public health nurses were considered reliable sources. However, the information required and desired was not consistently provided in either a comprehensive or appropriate format, suggesting that health professionals have an opportunity to improve in meeting their responsibilities to provide information to mothers on the topic of infant nutrition.