Exclusive breast feeding in early infancy, facts from Egypt

Background: Breastfeeding is the normal way of providing young infants with the nutrients they need for healthy growth and development. Breastfeeding is important for both infant and mother, it decreases the risk of respiratory tract infections and diarrhea, both in developing and developed countries, it lowers risks of asthma, food allergies, type 1 diabetes, and leukemia. Breastfeeding may also improve cognitive development and decrease the risk of obesity in adulthood. Benefits for the mother include less blood loss following delivery, better uterus shrinkage, and less postpartum depression. Exclusive breastfeeding is recommended up to 6 months of age, with continued breastfeeding along with appropriate complementary foods up to two years of age or beyond. Aim of the study: to assess the compliance of mothers in Egypt towards breastfeeding; how long they exclusively breast feed their infants, when hey use milk formulae and when the stop breast feeding. Methodology: questionnaire about breast feeding was prepared and given to child caring mothers either face to face or via different communication methods to answer questions after giving informed consent. The questions were about demographic data ( age and residence), number of children, period of exclusive breast feeding, if the used formula milk and why. Data were collected and statistical analysis was done. Results: 428 mothers participated in this study; 62 % of them were from 20-30 years and 35 % were from 30-40 years. 66% of participant mothers live in urban areas. According to number of children 32 % have one child, 29% have 2 children, 25 % have 3 children and 14 % have more than 3 children. 90 % of cases started breast feeding with their children while 10 % didn’t breast feed their children. 50 % exclusively breast feed their babies till 6 months, 35 % begin to introduce food from 4 to 6 months while 5 % introduced early before 4 months and 10 % introduced food later from 7-11 months. However, 61 % of mothers gave herbal drinks to their child in the first month and many of them think that it is a treatment for colic not a feeding. 31 % of mothers used formula feeding for their children; 45% of them gave it due to insufficient milk, while only 26 % were upon physician description, 13.5 % was due to medical contraindication for breast feeding and 14 % used formula to avoid baby crying.70% of mothers continue breastfeeding more than 1.5 years while 23 % stopped between 1 and 1.5 years and 7 % stopped before 1 year. Conclusion: most of Egyptian mothers start breast feeding and many of them continue till 1.5 years with more than 30 % use formula feeding.