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Objective: To investigate the extent to which breast milk is replaced by intake of other liquids or foods, and to estimate energy intake of infants defined as exclusively (EBF), predominantly (PBF) and partially breast-fed (PartBF). Design: Cross-sectional. Setting: Community-based study in urban Pelotas, Southern Brazil. Subjects: A total of 70 infants aged 4 months recruited at birth. Main outcome measures: Breast milk intake measured using a 'dose-to-the-mother' deuterium-oxide turnover method; feeding pattern and macronutrient intake assessed using a frequency questionnaire. Results: Adjusted mean breast milk intakes were not different between EBF and PBF (EBF, 806 g/day vs PBF, 778 g/day, P ¼ 0.59). The difference between EBF and PartBF was significant (PartBF, 603 g/day, P ¼ 0.004). Mean intakes of water from supplements were 10 g/day (EBF), 134 g/day (PBF) and 395 g/day (PartBF). Compared to EBF these differences were significant (EBF vs PBF, P ¼ 0.005; EBF vs PartBF, Po0.001). The energy intake of infants receiving cow or formula milk (BF þ CM/FM) in addition to breast milk tended to be 20% higher than the energy intake of EBF infants (EBF, 347 kJ/kg/day vs BF þ CM/FM, 418 kJ/kg/day, P ¼ 0.11). Conclusions: There was no evidence that breast milk was replaced by water, tea or juice in PBF compared to EBF infants. The energy intake in BF þ CM/FM infants tended to be 20% above the latest recommendations (1996) for breast-fed and 9% above those for formula-fed infants. If high intakes are maintained, this may result in obesity later in life. Sponsorship: International Atomic Energy Agency through RC 10981/R1.

OBJECTIVE: To describe a birth cohort which started in 2004, aiming to assess pre and perinatal conditions of the newborns, infant morbimortality, early life characteristics and outcomes, and access, use and financing of health care. METHODS:All children born in the urban area of Pelotas and Capão do Leão municipalities (Southern Brazil) in 2004 were identified and their mothers invited to join the study. In the first year of the study the children were seen at birth, at three and 12 months of age. These visits involved the application of a questionnaire to the mothers including questions on health; life style; use of health services; socioeconomic situation; estimation of gestational age; anthropometric measurements on the newborn (weight, length, head, chest and abdominal circumferences); anthropometric measurements on the mother (weight and height) and assessment of infant development. RESULTS:Out of the eligible infants (4,558), more than 99% were recruited to the study at birth. Follow-up rates were 96% at three months and 94% at 12 months of age. Among the initial results we highlight the following. Infant mortality rate was 19.7 per thousand, with 66% of infant deaths occurring in the neonatal period. There were frequencies of 15% premature babies and 10% low birthweight. Cesarean sections represented 45% of deliveries. CONCLUSIONS:The third Pelotas birth cohort showed an infant mortality rate similar to that of 11 years ago, with most deaths occurring in the neonatal period. The rates of prematurity and cesarean sections increased substantially.

BackgroundThe World Health Organization recommends that human growth should be monitored with the use of international standards. However, in obstetric practice, we continue to monitor fetal growth using numerous local charts or equations that are based on different populations for each body structure. Consistent with World Health Organization recommendations, the INTERGROWTH-21st Project has produced the first set of international standards to date pregnancies; to monitor fetal growth, estimated fetal weight, Doppler measures, and brain structures; to measure uterine growth, maternal nutrition, newborn infant size, and body composition; and to assess the postnatal growth of preterm babies. All these standards are based on the same healthy pregnancy cohort. Recognizing the importance of demonstrating that, postnatally, this cohort still adhered to the World Health Organization prescriptive approach, we followed their growth and development to the key milestone of 2 years of age.ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to determine whether the babies in the INTERGROWTH-21st Project maintained optimal growth and development in childhood.Study DesignIn the Infant Follow-up Study of the INTERGROWTH-21st Project, we evaluated postnatal growth, nutrition, morbidity, and motor development up to 2 years of age in the children who contributed data to the construction of the international fetal growth, newborn infant size and body composition at birth, and preterm postnatal growth standards. Clinical care, feeding practices, anthropometric measures, and assessment of morbidity were standardized across study sites and documented at 1 and 2 years of age. Weight, length, and head circumference age- and sex-specific z-scores and percentiles and motor development milestones were estimated with the use of the World Health Organization Child Growth Standards and World Health Organization milestone distributions, respectively. For the preterm infants, corrected age was used. Variance components analysis was used to estimate the percentage variability among individuals within a study site compared with that among study sites.ResultsThere were 3711 eligible singleton live births; 3042 children (82%) were evaluated at 2 years of age. There were no substantive differences between the included group and the lost-to-follow up group. Infant mortality rate was 3 per 1000; neonatal mortality rate was 1.6 per 1000. At the 2-year visit, the children included in the INTERGROWTH-21st Fetal Growth Standards were at the 49th percentile for length, 50th percentile for head circumference, and 58th percentile for weight of the World Health Organization Child Growth Standards. Similar results were seen for the preterm subgroup that was included in the INTERGROWTH-21st Preterm Postnatal Growth Standards. The cohort overlapped between the 3rd and 97th percentiles of the World Health Organization motor development milestones. We estimated that the variance among study sites explains only 5.5% of the total variability in the length of the children between...

Objective: To determine the prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding during the first 3 months of life and its determinant factors in a city in the South region of Brazil.Methods: Prospective study of a cohort of babies born between September 2002 and May 2003 in the city of Pelotas, RS. Data were obtained in interviews, at maternity units and during home visits, with mothers of babies aged between 1 and 3 months. Factors related to the cessation of breastfeeding were subjected to univariate, bivariate and multivariate analysis.Results: Nine hundred and forty mothers of children aged 3 months or less were interviewed, 39% of whom were still exclusively breastfeeding and around 1/3 of whom no longer breastfed. Multivariate analysis by logistic regression demonstrated a significant association between interruption of exclusive breastfeeding before 3 months and maternal employment, use of a pacifier, low family income (between one and three times the minimum wage), and less than 5 years paternal education.Conclusions: Exclusive breastfeeding throughout the first 3 months of life is an uncommon practice among the population of Pelotas, RS, in particular when the mother works away from home, the father has little education and the child is given a pacifier, which reinforces the need to continue stimulating exclusive breastfeeding during the first months of life. ResumoObjetivo: Determinar a prevalência do aleitamento materno exclusivo nos 3 primeiros meses de vida e os fatores determinantes em uma cidade da Região Sul do Brasil. Métodos: Estudo de coorte prospectivo, envolvendo bebês nascidos entre setembro de 2002 e maio de 2003 na cidade de Pelotas (RS).Os dados foram obtidos através de entrevistas, nas maternidades e no domicílio, com mães de bebês entre 1 e 3 meses de idade. Para análise dos fatores relacionados à interrupção do aleitamento materno, foram realizadas análises univariada, bivariada e multivariada.Resultados: Foram entrevistadas 940 mães de bebês com até 3 meses de idade, sendo que 39% destes recebiam aleitamento exclusivo e cerca de 1/3 já não mamava mais. Após análise multivariada por regressão logística, trabalho materno, uso de chupeta, renda familiar entre um e três salários mínimos e escolaridade paterna menor que 5 anos mostraram associação significativa com interrupção do aleitamento exclusivo antes dos 3 meses de vida.Conclusões: O aleitamento materno exclusivo nos primeiros 3 meses é pouco praticado na população de Pelotas (RS), em especial quando a mãe trabalha fora do lar, o pai tem pouca escolaridade e a criança faz uso de chupeta, o que reforça a necessidade de se continuar estimulando a amamentação exclusiva nos primeiros meses de vida. Prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding and its determiners in the first 3 months of life in the South of BrazilPrevalência de aleitamento materno exclusivo nos 3 primeiros meses de vida e seus determinantes no Sul do Brasil

The importance of exclusive breast-feeding in the first 6 mo of life is widely recognized, but most mothers still do not reach this goal. Several studies have shown that face-to-face lactation counseling is effective in increasing not only exclusive breast-feeding rates but also the total duration of breast-feeding. However, it is unclear whether counseling could increase breast milk intake. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of lactation counseling on breast milk intake, assessed through the deuterium dilution method. This was a blind, randomized intervention trial of lactation counseling in a sample of 188 babies born in Pelotas, selected with the same criteria used for the WHO Multicentre Growth Reference Study (MGRS). The main outcomes were breastfeeding pattern and duration for all infants as well as breast milk intake for a subsample of 68 infants at the age of 4 mo. Mothers in the control group were almost twice as likely to stop breast-feeding by 4 mo as those in the intervention group (prevalence ratio 1.85; P ϭ 0.04). Cox regression confirmed that the velocity of weaning was twice as high in the control group. Breast milk and total water intakes did not differ between the groups. The deuterium dilution technique proved to be a practical means of assessing breast milk intake. Lactation counseling reduced early weaning, but breast milk intake at 4 mo was not affected. J. Nutr. 133: 205-210, 2003.Several authors have stressed the importance of breastfeeding and its advantages in terms of social, economic and health-related outcomes, particularly the reduction in morbidity and mortality caused by infectious diseases (1-10). Early introduction of other liquids or of complementary foods may reduce breast milk intake (11) and the protection afforded against several diseases (3,4,12). Thus, the WHO and UNICEF recommend that exclusive breast-feeding should be continued until the age of 6 mo (13).Despite the wide recognition of the importance of breast milk, rates of exclusive breast-feeding are still low in most countries, and the duration of any breast-feeding is also unsatisfactory in most of the world. Studies carried out in the last decade show that face-to-face counseling by trained health workers is effective not only for reducing the early introduction of liquids or solids, but also for increasing the duration of breast-feeding (1,12,14,15). It has also been argued that counseling could increase breast milk intake among breast-fed infants (16). However, in a comprehensive literature search, we did not identify any studies assessing breast milk intake in relation to the use of counseling.Isotopic methods have been developed in the last 20 y to measure breast milk intake. These have the advantage over test weighing for feeding frequency assessments because they do not interfere with normal patterns of behavior and are not time-consuming for the mothers involved (17-24).The method consists of the oral administration of a fixed dose of deuterium to the mother, and the fate of the d...

It is unclear whether early child development is, like skeletal growth, similar across diverse regions with adequate health and nutrition. We prospectively assessed 1307 healthy, well-nourished 2-year-old children of educated mothers, enrolled in early pregnancy from urban areas without major socioeconomic or environmental constraints, in Brazil, India, Italy, Kenya and UK. We used a specially developed psychometric tool, WHO motor milestones and visual tests. Similarities across sites were measured using variance components analysis and standardised site differences (SSD). In 14 of the 16 domains, the percentage of total variance explained by between-site differences ranged from 1.3% (cognitive score) to 9.2% (behaviour score). Of the 80 SSD comparisons, only six were >±0.50 units of the pooled SD for the corresponding item. The sequence and timing of attainment of neurodevelopmental milestones and associated behaviours in early childhood are, therefore, likely innate and universal, as long as nutritional and health needs are met.

OBJETIVOS: identificar as características - maternas, dos bebês e das maternidades - associadas com o início da amamentação na primeira hora após o parto. MÉTODOS: estudo transversal aninhado em coorte que acompanhou bebês de mães residentes em Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul. As mães responderam a questionário padronizado, com dados referentes a fatores demográficos e socioeconômicos, pré-natal, características maternas do bebê, da maternidade, condições de nascimento e início da amamentação. As entrevistas foram realizadas através de visitas diárias às maternidades, respeitando um período mínimo de quatro horas após o parto. Foram realizadas análise univariada, bivariada e regressão logística. RESULTADOS: foram entrevistadas 2741 mães, sendo que 35,5% amamentaram na primeira hora pós-parto. As que mais precocemente iniciaram a amamentação foram as de menor idade, menor escolaridade e menor renda. Mães cujo parto foi cesárea tiveram um risco cerca de duas vezes maior de não amamentar na primeira hora de vida. CONCLUSÕES: é importante a indicação adequada do tipo de parto, pois a cesárea aumenta o tempo de separação mãe-bebê. É relevante estimular a expansão da Iniciativa Hospital Amigo da Criança, pela capacidade de promover e proteger o aleitamento.