Cross-sectional studies on infant feeding practices in Malaysia have shown that even though there is a high percentage of initial breastfeeding, there is also a very rapid fall-off of full breastfeeding to be replaced by mixed feeding or full formula feeding. This paper gives the findings of a study conducted on 148 mothers who had just delivered their babies at the Maternity Hospital, Kuala Lumpur. 56 of these mothers were followed up to identify the feeding practices up to 6 months of the infant's life. Just after delivery, 83 .1% of the 148 motftrs had indicated interest to breasffeed either fully or partially. However, in the 56 mothers followed up later, 15 (26.7%) babies were not breasffed or breasffed for less than 1 week and only 15 (26.5%) were breasffed at least 6 months. Several factors affect breastfeeding rate amongst these mothers. Breastfeeding rate was significantly higher and longer amongst the Malays and least and shortest amongst the Chinese. The number of Malay mothers breastfeeding less than 1 week was 2 out of 24 (8.3%) whereas the number of Chinese mothers was 10 out of 19 (52.6%). Similarly, the number of Malay mothers breastfeeding beyond 3 months was 16 out of 24 (67.7%) and Chinese mothers only 4 out of 19 (21.0%). Other important factors are the type of initial feeding and the onset of initial formula feeding. Out of 26 babies initiated on breastmilk as the first feed, 12 were breasffed for at least 6 months whereas 8 of the 18 started on formulas were not breasffed at all or for less than 7 days and only one breastfed for at least 6 months. Similarly, out of 27 babies given formula feeding in the first 2 days, 15 were not breasffed at all or for less than 1 week and only 3 breasffed at least 6 months. This suggests the importance of early mixed feeding in the rapid decline of breastfeeding. The employment status of the mother and the family income do not seem to affect the breastfeeding rate and its duration for the baby.