Table of Contents
Chapters
- Fertility Continues to Decline
- Contraceptive Use
- Contraceptive Method Mix
- Awareness and Availability of Contraception
- Other Direct Influences on Fertility
- Fertility Preferences
- Young Women
- Child Survival and Health
- Infant Mortality
- Under-Five Mortality
- Impact of HIV/AIDS
- Child Immunization
- Breastfeeding and Infant and Child Health
- Maternal Health
Highlights
- Is fertility decline slowing?
- The impact of contraception
- Intentions to use family planning
- Injectables becoming popular
- Desired family size falling
- Premarital sex: New findings
- How AIDS affects child survival
- Maternal care falls short
Published by the INFO Project, Center for Communication Programs, The Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, 111 Market Place, Suite 310, Baltimore, Maryland 21202, USA
Volume XXXI, Number 2,
Spring 2003
Series M, Number 17
Special Topics
Breastfeeding and
Infant and Child Health
|
Harvey Nelson Breastfeeding can save young lives. It offers important benefits to infants and children in health and nutrition. |
Breastfeeding practices in developing countries appear to have improved since 1990. The level of exclusive breastfeeding among infants to three months of age increased an average of 10 percentage points for 35 countries with more than one survey since 1990, chiefly because mothers stopped introducing non-milk foods to children too early. Substantial increases in exclusive breastfeeding since 1990 took place in some countries, including an increase of 59 percentage points in Malawi (see Table 13).
The practice of introducing complementary foods at the appropriate time increased an average of six percentage points among 35 countries with multiple surveys. In three countries the increases were much greater—28 points in Ghana, 30 points in Bangladesh, and 38 points in Uganda.
Overall, the level of continued feeding for children 12 to 15 months and 20 to 23 months remained about the same in developing countries with multiple surveys since 1990. In El Salvador, Malawi, Nicaragua, and Peru, however, levels of continued feeding rose between 12 and 28 percentage points between surveys.
In several surveyed countries breastfeeding practices deteriorated. The level of exclusive breastfeeding fell from 32% to 15% in Jordan between surveys, as did complementary feeding in Benin (from 83% to 64%) and Turkey (from 45% to 33%). In Niger and Rwanda continued breastfeeding among children 20 to 23 months fell by 26% and 40% between surveys.
Benefits of breastfeeding. Breastfeeding provides valuable health benefits to infants and children, conferring immunity from certain diseases, avoiding exposure to unclean drinking water, and helping ensure adequate nutrition. A study of recent survey data from 17 countries illustrates the impact that breastfeeding has on infant survival. When other factors that affect mortality are accounted for, an infant is four times more likely to die if a mother stops any breastfeeding at age 2 to 3 months than an infant whose mother continues breastfeeding (see Figure 2).
Breastfeeding protects even older infants from death. For instance, infants who stop any breastfeeding between 9 and 12 months are 2.3 times more likely to die than infants who continue any breastfeeding at this time (95).
Almost all infants in developing countries receive some breastfeeding during their first three months. Survey data since 1990 from 56 developing countries show that one-third of infants under four months are exclusively breastfed—from 44% in Asia to 29% in sub-Saharan Africa. In Latin America and the Caribbean an average of 37% of infants under four months are exclusively breastfed, and 34% in the Near East and North Africa (see Table 13).
Initiating complementary feeding too late could malnourish an infant. At about six months, infants need solid or semi-solid foods to supplement nutrients in breast milk (120). Surveys indicate that 64% of infants ages six to nine months receive complementary feeding, with substantial variation among countries (see Table 13).
Breastfeeding up to age two, in conjunction with appropriate complementary feeding, helps maintain good nutrition and also continues to help prevent diarrhea (120). Among children ages 12 to 15 months, 78% of mothers in surveyed developing countries continue any amount of breastfeeding. Levels of continued breastfeeding drop considerably between 20 and 23 months of age, to 45%. Mothers in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia are almost twice as likely to continue any breastfeeding late into the second year of a child’s life as those in other developing regions (see Table 13).
