title: Breast feeding pattern in neonates.
abstract: The present study comprised 100 mothers of newborn babies with regard to their belief and practices about lactation. A vast majority (98.2%) of the mothers were breast feeding, 87.9% mothers used prelacteal feeds of one sort or the other. Only 0.5% breast fed their babies within 6 hours and nearly 50% started after 48 hours. Colostrum was discarded by 82.9% of mother and nearly 73% wanted to continue breast feeding beyond 1 year. The age of weaning preferred was after 1 year by 91%. Only 24.7% mothers had undergone antenatal check ups. Hence, much needs to be done with regards to proper antenatal care and advice to discourage wrong and harmful feeding practices.
authors.affiliation: Upgraded Department of Pediatrics, Patna Medical College.
authors.forename: S P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Srivastava
authors.forename: V K
authors.initials: VK
authors.lastname: Sharma
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Kumar
mesh_terms: D001290:Attitude; D001942:Breast Feeding / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D009747:Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D011446:Prospective Studies; D013997:Time Factors; D014886:Weaning