Continued breastfeeding and child growth in the second year of life: a prospective cohort study in Western Kenya

1. Continued breastfeeding and child growth in the second year of life: a prospective cohort study in Western Kenya Presented by : Kemlyn Conliffe

2. Introduction • Several organizations, such as World Health Organization (WHO) and other United Nations agencies, recommend that children should be breastfed. • After 6 months of breastfeeding, adequate foods should be added to the child’s diet until they are 2 years old.

3. Hypothesis It was believed that breastfeeding during the second year of life promotes child growth.

4. Procedures • Several fieldworks were trained to take the weight and length of all the participants of the study. • Weight was measured using an electronic scale and length was measured on Shorr Board. • Measurement were taken at baseline(November,1995) and at final assessment (May,1996)

5. Procedures cont’d • At baseline and final assessment, three height measurements were taken and averaged and two weight measurements were taken and averaged. • Anthropometric indicators were obtained using data from the National Center for Health Strategies (NCHS). • The data obtained from the NCHS gave values which were associated with stunting,wasting and underweight babies

6. Procedure cont’d • Interviews were done to obtain information about the water consumption, sanitation,socioeconomic status of the household, parental age and education and child feeding and morbidity. • Dietary data was collected every 3 weeks . • Each child was given free health care and illnesses were monitored as well.

7. Procedure cont’d • Weaning is defined as the ceasing of breastfeeding in this study. • Children who were breastfed for less than half of the study were considered as having a short duration breastfeeding. • Those breastfed throughout the study were considered long duration breastfeeding. • Intermediates were considered to be medium duration breastfeeding.

8. Results

9. Table1: Baseline characteristics of children lost to follow up and final sample

10. Table 1 cont’d

11. Table 2: Household and maternal characteristics by breastfeeding category.

12. Table 2 cont’d

13. Table 2 cont’d

14. Table 3: Characteristic of children and baseline anthropometry and growth by breastfeeding category

15. Table 3 cont’d

16. Conclusion • It was observed that mothers of higher socioeconomic status breast fed their children less, lowering the weight and length. • Weaning was done due to illness or subsequent pregnancies. • Limitations were the physiological benefits such as closer mother-child relationships.

17. Conclusion cont’d • Breastfeeding is a biological process that promotes good maternal and child health. • Increased water use indicated that more food was prepared ,therefore the frequency of child feeding was greater. It also indicated a greater degree of cleanliness. • Results suggest that breastfeeding in the second year contributes to linear growth.