Abstract

FERNANDEZ BRIZUELA, Ener de Jesús; STEWARD LEMES, George; ALUM BARCENAS, Juana María  and  DIAZ SOBRINO, Yuley. Health status of children aged 8-14 months depending on the type of breastfeeding. Rev Cubana Med Gen Integr [online]. 2014, vol.30, n.1, pp. 82-92. ISSN 0864-2125.

Introduction: breastfeeding has proven itself over generations and it has allowed the survival of humanity, it has showed health benefits of mother, child, and economy. Objective: to characterize the health status of children aged 8-14 months depending on the type of feeding they received in their first six months of life. Methods: a descriptive retrospective study was undertaken in 32 children aged 8 and 14 months from family medical practices 20, 21, 22, 23, 25 and 27 at Céspedes Polyclinic in Camagüey. The nonrandom sample was composed of 29 children aged 8 and 14 months who met our inclusion and exclusion criteria. The variables studied were: number of pneumonia episodes, other respiratory infections that would or not have required antimicrobial, diarrheal diseases, hospital admissions for infectious diseases, and nutritional status. Results: out of the total number of children observed, 11 were exclusively breastfed until six months of age, representing 37.9% of the total. Acute respiratory infections without antibiotics and respiratory infections treated with antimicrobials episodes were mostly observed in both groups. Children with compromised nutritional status were more frequent among patients who were not exclusively breastfed until the sixth month (17.3% of the total). Conclusions: poor practices EBF prevailed and infectious are more common diseases in these children, thus causes hospitalization and nutritional disorders are very common as well.

Keywords : breastfeeding; nutritional status; infections.

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