Introduction:

Exclusive breastfeeding abandonment represents a public health concern that affects child development during the first six months of life.

Objective:

To identify the factors associated with exclusive breastfeeding abandonment in a Peruvian city.

Methods:

Cross-sectional and descriptive study including 177 women who attended the growth and development clinic of Víctor Ramos Guardia and EsSalud II hospitals in Huaraz City (Peru) during the months from July to December 2018. We used the personal interview to collect the socioeconomic, cultural and biological factors associated with exclusive breastfeeding abandonment. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (version 25) was used for the data analysis. The Chi-square test was used to evaluate the inferential statistics.

Results:

Of the evaluated factors, only the biological one was significantly related to exclusive breastfeeding abandonment. 61.36% were men. 55.45% were breast-fed in the first hour of life. 38.64% had no breast milk. 52.27% had a good experience with breastfeeding. 65.91% considered it convenient to provide milk formula. 84.09% and 97.73% of children younger than six months were only breastfed and began to be offered milk formula. 52.27% considered that the baby was hungry as reason for abandonment.

Conclusions:

The socioeconomic and cultural factors were not related to exclusive breastfeeding abandonment, while the biological factor was significantly related to it.

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