[Duration of breastfeeding of children visiting a pediatric outpatient unit].
OBJECTIVE
To observe the time of total and partial weaning as well as the alleged causes for precocious weaning of infants seen at the outpatient unit.


METHODS
259 mothers of children aged 12-24 months were interviewed at the Pediatric Outpatient Unity of Fundação Santa Casa de Misericórdia do Pará.


RESULTS
It was verified that only 3.9 % of the children received cow milk (artificial formula) during the neonatal period. Nevertheless, 62.9 % of the babies received tea and/or water at the first month of life. The most frequent reasons to give them tea or water were colics, flatulation and babieś thirst. Only 18.5 % of the infants were completely weaned in the first six months of life; 62.6 % of them were breastfed during 12 or more months. There was a significant improvement in the duration of breastfeeding as compared with a previous study conducted 10 years earlier in the same unity. The most frequent justifications mothers gave for total weaning in the first semester were "the child refused the breast" and "the breast dried out".


CONCLUSIONS
Despite the favorable results concerning the duration of breastfeeding, efforts to encourage it must continue above all to avoid early use of tea and/or water.
Moura
E F
EF
Departamento de Assistência Materno-Infantil II da Universidade Federal do Pará.