Abstract

Introduction:  breastfeeding  (BF)  and  complementary  feeding  (CF)  are  fundamental  practices  in  the  human  life  process,  since  it  contributes  to  the  growth,  maturation  and  development of the infant; as well as providing short, medium and long term benefits.

Objective:  to  determine  the  proportion  of  breastfeeding  in  its  different  forms  and  to  characterize the complementary feeding scheme in children born from 2015 to 2017 who currently attend the primary care in a city in the south of the Mexican Republic.

Material  and  methods:  cross-sectional  analytical  study,  the  sample  consisted  of  150 mothers, who were surveyed for consecutive cases; as long as they met the inclusion criteria.

Results: the practice of BF was high 91.3%, while the exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) was 42% with an average duration of 1.81 months, 64.1% of the population studied used milk formula (MF). Women with basic education gave a higher proportion of complementary breastfeeding. The average onset of complementary feeding was 5.9 months, in the scheme of start of CF there is a significant absence of meat; since this food group was introduced on average in the tenth month. Sugar and salt addiction were carried out early 7.57 and 9.69 months respectively.

Conclusion:  there  is  a  low  duration  of  the  EBF  and  a  high  use  of  MF,  the  CF  scheme  reflects an important iron deficiency, which can impact on the health of the infant; as well as the early introduction of sugar and salt.

Keywords

breastfeeding, exclusive breastfeeding, complementary feeding, primary care