Infant feeding practices in Central Anatolia, Turkey

摘要

Infant feeding decisions are some of the most important choices parents make. Breast milk or formula is the first decision made in infant feeding. Complementary feeding is common among very young children in Turkey. Therefore, the aim of this research is to focus on the introduction of solid foods, and to determine the relationship between sociodemographic characteristics and breastfeeding practices of infants' mothers. The study includes a stratified random sample of 335 infants and toddlers between 4 and 24 months of age. The duration of breastfeeding increased with the second-born, third-born or higher-born infants, but did not significantly increase with the third born. The mean breastfeeding duration in this sample was 11.19 months. Bread was reported by two-thirds of mothers when their infants were four to six months of age, followed by fruit juice and vegetable soup, egg and cow's milk. Mothers in our study introduced supplementary food much earlier than recommendations. Further research is needed to determine the extent and impact of feeding practices on child growth and the sizes of portions consumed should be included.