Early infant feeding practices in Jinan City, Shandong Province, China.
To investigate early infant feeding practices in Jinan, China, a cross-sectional study was carried out in April-May 2000. Data were collected through structured interviews among nearly all the mother-infant pairs (247) in four communities in the city with infants under seven months of age. All but one was born in a hospital and rooming-in (infant sleeping in same room as mother) was widely practiced. Breastfeeding was practiced universally, but first contact with the new-born was delayed one or more hours for 51% of subjects. Colostrum was given to 94% of the infants, yet during the first three days, all but 34% were given water, artificial baby milk, glucose or other prelacteal feeds. Among infants under 4 months of age, 35% were currently exclusively breastfeeding, but at two months only 40% were, and only half that many had received nothing but breast-milk since birth. Exclusive breastfeeding has probably increased in China, but further promotion is still needed in this area.
Department of Women's and Children's Health, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
Ying
Y
Zhao
Aimin M
AM
Niu
Guifa F
GF
Xu
Matha J
MJ
Garrett
Ted
T
Greiner
D001903:Bottle Feeding / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D001942:Breast Feeding / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002681:China; D003126:Colostrum; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007225:Infant Food; D007229:Infant Welfare; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D014505:Urban Population; D014886:Weaning