Introduction:

Breastfeeding withdrawal is one of the challenges faced by the Cuban National Health System due to its adverse consequences on the health of babies.

Objective:

To identify the relationship between exclusive breastfeeding withdrawal and health disorders in babies.

Material and Methods:

A descriptive, retrospective, cross-sectional study was carried out on 105 breastfed babies from “Aleida Fernández Chardiet” Policlinic who were born in 2019 and were precociously weaned from exclusive breastfeeding before the sixth month. The variables used were: maternal age, duration of exclusive breastfeeding, most frequent diseases diagnosed in the child, and need for hospital admission. The chi-squared non-parametric independence test was used to show the relationship among variables.

Results:

Exclusive breastfeeding withdrawal before the third month was predominant (71, 4 %); the most frequent diseases diagnosed were respiratory diseases and diarrheas (40 % and 23,8 %, respectively); about half the babies required hospital admission (55,2 %) before the sixth month; the relationship with early withdrawal of breastfeeding was statistically significant.

Conclusions:

Early withdrawal of breastfeeding has negative effects on the health of babies. Although the illnesses did not have a statistically significant relationship with it, a high frequency of their incidence was found in such young babies.

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