Infant feeding and weaning practices at Simla-Hills Himachal Pradesh
Bansal, R.D.; Ghosh, B.N.; Bhardwaj, U.D.; Joshi, S.C.
Indian Journal of Medical Research 61(12): 1869-1875
1973
ISSN/ISBN: 0019-5340 PMID: 4787043 Document Number: 520291
In Simla, 600 mothers attending outpatients' departments were interviewed and their homes were visited to verify data. The mothers had at least 1 child older than 3 years; 96% of them were Hindu and 3% were Sikh. There were 1% with monthly income above Rs 270 per person, 10% with Rs 130 to 269, 68.6% with Rs 40 to 129 and 20% with less than Rs 40. The first feeds given to newborn infants were honey for 43.1% of them, janam ghutti (herbs in honey) for 11.5%, glucose water for 9.1%, water and milk for 8.3%. Almost 25.5% of mothers gave nothing before breast feeding.Of the mothers 29.6% breast fed on the 1st day, 26.6% on the 2nd and 3rd days and 2.0% as late as the 5th day. Breast feeding was stopped by 7.8% of the mothers within 6 months, by 50.6% by 1 year and 41.5% after 1 year; only 5% continued beyond 2 years. Neither age nor parity had any effect on feeding patterns. Babies were weaned by 71% of mothers when breast feeding was thought unnecessary, by 17.5% when milk was not adequate, because of a next pregnancy in 3% and illness in 2.8%. There were 13% who weaned by painting the nipple with unpalatable substances. Of mothers 75% supplemented breast feeding with dried or fresh milk and water within 6 months, and 93% introduced solid food within a year. Solids included rice dishes, chappatis, wheatmeal porridge, mashed bananas, cooked vegetables, egg yolk and biscuits; 72.8% of mothers fed on demand. Food preparation, storage and distribution were generally satisfactory because of the high proportion (63%) of literate mothers.