Relación entre lactancia materna y estado nutricional. IAHULA. Mérida. Venezuela

Abstract

A prospective study on 507 patients was carried out at the pediatrics area of the University Hospital of the Andes in Merida, Venezuela, without discrimination about the motive of the consult. The objective was to analyze the characteristics of breast feeding and its relationship to the nutritional status of the children, as well as the causes that lead to early weaning. The patients were classified according to their nutritional status, looking for any relationship MedULA, Revista de Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Los Andes. Vol. 9 No 1-4. 2000. (2003). Merida. Venezuela. 10 between breast feeding and causes for coming to the hospital. Most of the patients were pre-school male children. The main causes of incoming were home accidents, association malnutrition-infection, pneumony and bronchopneumonia, as well as other preventable diseases. More than 70 % of the mothers offer cereals early in the milky dilution. The figure of malnutrition reached 36.3 %. The chronically undernourished children were older babies (breast feeders) and school children. 39.4 % of the mothers breast-feed their children through the third month of age. The main cause for not breast feeding their children in most of the mothers was their lack of education