title: Exclusive breastfeeding practices reported by mothers and the introduction of additional liquids.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the concept of exclusive breastfeeding held by nursing women by comparing the period they consider that they perform it and the infants' age at the introduction of additional liquids.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross-sectional descriptive study conducted with 309 women who delivered babies at a university hospital in the interior of São Paulo, Brazil. The data were subjected to descriptive analysis; the variables of interest were crossed using the non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis test, the chi-square test and Fisher's exact test.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Approximately 30% of the women reported having introduced additional liquids before the infants reached aged six months old, while asserting that they were performing exclusive breastfeeding. The following variables were associated with early introduction of liquids: lack of employment (p = 0.0386), younger maternal age (p = 0.0159) and first pregnancy (p = 0.003).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The concept of exclusive breastfeeding might not be fully clear to women, as they seem to believe that it means not to feed the children other types of milk but that giving other liquids is allowed. These results show that promotion of breastfeeding should take beliefs and values into consideration to achieve effective dialogue and understanding with mothers.
authors.affiliation: Faculdade de Enfermagem, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Alessandra Marcuz de Souza
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Campos
authors.affiliation: Faculdade de Enfermagem, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Camila de Oliveira
authors.initials: Cde O
authors.lastname: Chaoul
authors.affiliation: Faculdade de Enfermagem, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Elenice Valentim
authors.initials: EV
authors.lastname: Carmona
authors.affiliation: Centro de Atenção Integral à Saúde da Mulher, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Rosângela
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Higa
authors.affiliation: Faculdade de Enfermagem, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Ianê Nogueira
authors.initials: IN
authors.lastname: do Vale
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001903:Bottle Feeding; D001942:Breast Feeding; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008425:Maternal Behavior; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D055815:Young Adult