Which Target Population for Promotion Programs on Health Infant Feeding Practice in Laos?

One of the determinants of the poor improvement in child nutrition indicators observed in Laos is mothers’ feeding practices. These practices are influenced by many socio-environmental factors and are expected to be targets of public health programs against malnutrition. The purpose of this work is to examine how the Lao National Nutrition Strategy (NNS) incorporates the issue of the determinants of the behavior of mothers of young children in its recommendations. We argue that the little consideration brought in the NNS to key determinants of women’s behavior is a major explanatory factor for the poor performance in improving the nutrition status of Lao under-five-year-old children.

“Breast is best”—Infant-feeding, infant mortality and infant welfare in Germany during the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries

Breastfeeding is considered to be the key variable for infant health. Consequently, UNICEF and the World Health Organization promote the beginning of breastfeeding within the first hour after birth and recommend to exclusively breastfeed the infant during the first six months. The origins of these modern breastfeeding campaigns can be traced back to the beginning of the twentieth century. Whereas high infant mortality rates traditionally were considered to be a matter of fate and the declining birth rates towards the end of the nineteenth century raised fears about the nation’s future and led to the emergence of an increasing infant welfare movement in imperial Germany. As low breastfeeding rates were identified as a key factor behind the high infant mortality rates, the main objective of the infant care movement was to increase breastfeeding. The paper examines how the context of infant care and infant mortality was constructed and how breastfeeding campaigns in the context of infant mortality, breastfeeding rates and socio-political changes developed during the twentieth century. Thus the paper covers the period from the beginnings of social paediatrics at the beginning of the 20th century, the breastfeeding campaigns embedded into Nazi ideology during the Third Reich, until the declining breastfeeding ratios and the “feeding on demand”-movement in the 1970s as well as the ideological differences between West and East Germany during the Cold War.

The Impact of Breastfeeding Pattern on the Duration of Lactational Amenorrhoea in Chengdu, China

Objective To determine the relation between infant feeding practices (and other factors) and the duration of postpartum amenorrhoea in a sample of Chinese women Subjects &. Methods Infant feeding and the return of menses were measured longitudinally in 541 mothers and their infants in Pengxian County, Sichuan Province. The durations of breastfeeding and of lactational amenorrhoea were estimated through survival analysis. Cox's non-parametric hazards regression analysis was performed to determine the variables associated with the duration of lactational amenorrhoea. Results Mothers breastfed frequently per day, the mean frequency ranging from 6. 4 per day at 3 weeks postpartum to 5. 4 per day at 6 months. They breastfed for over 18. 3 months on average. The median duration of lactational amenorrhoea was 9. 5 months. The period from birth until the first breastfeed was a significant determinant of the duration of lactational amenorrhoea, P = 0. 038. Compared with women who ended full breastfeeding earlier, those who ceased full breastfeeding at 120 to 24C days returned to menses significantly sooner (risk ratio = 1. 34; 95% CI = 1. 06-1. 69). This finding is probably spurious since no relationship between full breastfeeding duration and the return of menses was found among women -who ended full breastfeeding after 240 days. Conclusion The most important determinant of the return of menses was the delay in the first breastfeed after birth, suggesting that the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding should be more precisely implemented.

Breast Feeding Cuts Infant Death 20 Percent

[提示]母乳喂养,英语叫breast-fed。母乳喂养婴儿,好处可谓多矣!首先在诞生一年之內,婴儿的死亡率就比非母乳喂养者降低了20％。别的好处也很多,比如:Other studies have shown breast-fed babies are less likely to be overweight,have fewer behavioral problems and may show differences in intelligence.They also may grow up to have lower blood pressure(血压).调查还证明,当今美国母乳喂养的婴儿占婴儿总数之70％!笔者甚至怀疑,我国是否达到了这个标准,尤其是都市年轻母亲。

Knowledge

Natural disasters, war, civil unrest and other catastrophes continue to disrupt, and often seriously endanger, the lives of millions of people around the world. Whatever their cause, emergencies pose a particularly grave threat to health, nutritional status and very survival of infants and young children. Fortunately, much of the disability and death typical among this age group in such circumstances can be averted-provided proper feeding and care can be ensured.