Infant Feeding Practices and Growth Performance in the First Year of Life

Infant feeding plays an important role in long term health status. The purpose of this study is to describe demographic correlates of various infant feeding practices including breastfeeding, formula feeding, mixed feeding (breastfed and formula fed) and complementary food introduction and their potential impact on growth.;A modified version of the Infant Feeding Practices Study II (mIFPS II) questionnaire was developed, tested for content validity, and administered to 166 caretakers of infants, ages 28 days to 6 months in a pediatric outpatient population at a large medical center in Chicago, Illinois. Demographic variables were compared across infant feeding practices using chi square and Kruskal Wallis tests with SPSS, version 23 (IBM, Chicago, IL): Weight for length z scores were used to classify weight status according WHO growth chart standards. Chi square tests were used to compare weight status across feeding mode. Rapid weight gain was defined as a change in weight for length z score of >0.67 between birth and 6 months.;The largest proportion of the sample of 166 caretakers was African American (41.3%), college graduates or above (45.9%), and receiving WIC benefits (53.5%). At the time of questionnaire completion, 27% of participants were exclusively breastfed, 48% were formula fed, 21% were mixed fed, and 4% reported another mode of infant feeding. Caretakers who breastfed their infants were older (median 30.2 years) than those who used formula feeding (median 25.0 years) (p=0.002). Median infant age at time of complementary food introduction did not differ among infants who were breastfed (5.5, IQR 4.75, 6.0), formula fed (5.0, IQR 3.5, 5.5), and mixed fed (5.0, IQR 4.5, 6.0) (p=0.19). Of those infants who were introduced to complementary foods at the time of questionnaire completion, a greater proportion of formula fed infants had been introduced before 4 months of age (25.8%) compared to breastfed (0%) and of mixed fed infants (11.1%).;There were no differences in the proportion of infants who were obese or normal weight compared as.a function of feeding mode at 1, 3, or 6 months of age. Rapid weight gain was observed in 53.8% of breastfed infants, 65.0% mixed fed infants, and 75.0% of formula fed infants.;Certain infant feeding practices were associated with key demographic characteristics. Knowledge of such associations is vital for clinicians to better target education to these groups. More research is needed to determine the long term impacts of infant feeding practices.