Exclusive Breastfeeding and Growth of infants attending Olabisi Onabanjo University teaching Hospital

Abstract

A longitudinal study of 150 infants selected by stratified random sampling of 700 breastfed infants attending the child survival clinic of Ogun State university Teaching Hospital sagamu over two years was carried out. The study was carried out to see the proportion of mothers’ breastfeeding exclusively for six months and how breast milk alone supports the infant’s growth. The percentage of mother’s breastfeeding exclusively by 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 months postpartum respectively was 100%,100%, 90%, 74%, and 20% respectively. A high percentage of the infants had normal weight for age (92.3% - 96.9%), normal height for age (80-93.5%) and normal weight for height. (72.9% -90.3%) The percentage of children who had low height for age was high (6.5% -20%) in all the age groups, when compared with weight for age (0.7%) and height for age (0.9% -4.5%) More advocacy and awareness program is needed to sustain exclusive breastfeeding for six months postpartum and to reassure mothers that exclusive breast-milk for the first six months of infants life is enough for infant’s growth.