Kamel Laila, Sabry Hend, Ismail Marwa, Nasr Ghada
Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.
East Mediterr Health J. 2020 Aug 25;26(8):909-915. doi: 10.26719/emhj.20.045.
Breastfeeding and proper weaning contribute to achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. In Egypt, by age 4-5 months, only 13% of infants are exclusively breastfed. A survey conducted in Egyptian hospitals concluded that many of the 10 steps to support successful breastfeeding were not executed correctly and other steps were not executed at all.
To explore the patterns of feeding and weaning among infants in Egypt, and identify their determinants, to improve practice and promote children's nutritional status.
A cross-sectional analytical study of 333 mother-infant pairs attending two primary healthcare (PHC) centres for vaccination sessions between April 2017 and June 2018. Mothers were interviewed using a structured questionnaire.
Almost all infants were born in hospitals. Exclusive breastfeeding was not widely practiced. Prelacteal feeding was a common malpractice. The majority of mothers initiated artificial feeding during the first month of life. Rural mothers tended to introduce different foods earlier than urban mothers did. Minimum dietary diversity was achieved by 50.9% of urban infants aged ≥ 6 months (≥ 4 food groups), compared with 25.9% of rural infants. Minimum recommended meal frequency for age was fulfilled for 51.9% of urban and 29.6% of rural infants. More than 85% of mothers expressed their need for additional knowledge, and more than half identified the PHC centre as the appropriate source for information.
Our study reflects deficiency in maternal practice regarding breastfeeding and weaning, despite being regular visitors to the PHC centre.
母乳喂养和适当断奶有助于实现可持续发展目标。在埃及，4至5个月大的婴儿中，只有13% 是纯母乳喂养。在埃及医院进行的一项调查得出结论，支持成功母乳喂养的10个步骤中有许多没有得到正确执行，其他步骤则根本没有执行。
探索埃及婴儿的喂养和断奶模式，并确定其决定因素，以改进实践并促进儿童营养状况。
对2017年4月至2018年6月期间前往两个初级卫生保健（PHC）中心参加疫苗接种的333对母婴进行横断面分析研究。使用结构化问卷对母亲进行访谈。
几乎所有婴儿都在医院出生。纯母乳喂养没有得到广泛实践。产前喂养是一种常见的不当做法。大多数母亲在婴儿出生后的第一个月就开始人工喂养。农村母亲往往比城市母亲更早引入不同食物。6个月及以上的城市婴儿中有50.9% 实现了最低饮食多样性（至少4种食物组），而农村婴儿这一比例为25.9%。城市婴儿中有51.9%、农村婴儿中有29.6% 达到了适合其年龄的最低推荐进餐频率。超过85% 的母亲表示需要更多知识，超过一半的母亲认为初级卫生保健中心是合适的信息来源。
我们的研究反映出，尽管母亲们经常前往初级卫生保健中心，但在母乳喂养和断奶方面的实践仍存在不足。
