Affiliations 

  • 1 C K Siah, MBBS. Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  • 2 H Yadav, FAMM. Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Med J Malaysia, 2002 Jun;57(2):188-94.
PMID: 24326649

Abstract

A cross sectional descriptive study on breast feeding practices in an urban clinic was conducted among 136 mothers aged between 21-49 years who were interviewed using a questionnaire. Malays constituted 61% of the respondents, Chinese 22.8% and Indians 16.2%. Mojority of these were working mothers and although the initiation of breastfeeding was high (99.3%), exclusive breastfeeding was only 12.5%. A large proportion (33.8%) dtopped prior to 3 months. Majority of the Chinese mothers (61.3%) stipped before 3 months as compared to the Indian (40.9%) and Malay (21.7%) mothers (p<0.001). Mean age of introducing complementary foods at 3 months is below the accepted age of 4 to 6 months for weaning. Ever-breast feeding rate is high in this urban setting but more efforts are needed to effect a higher rate of exclusive breastfeeding and longer duration of breastfeeding.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.