Estudo exploratório sobre aleitamento materno entre escolares de quinta série do Ensino Fundamental

Abstract

O estudo avaliou conhecimentos, percepções, crenças e vivências em relação ao aleitamento materno em 564 escolares, de ambos os sexos, da quinta série do Ensino Fundamental. O questionário usado continha 25 questões objetivas. Aplicou-se o teste de qui-quadrado e teste t, considerando a amostragem por conglomerado. Os escolares consideraram o leite materno o melhor alimento para o bebê, mas 60% optariam pela amamentação exclusiva de seus filhos. Menos de 20% responderam que a criança pode mamar até dois anos ou mais, aproximadamente ¼ acredita que o bebê deve começar a receber outros alimentos aos seis meses, e mais de 80% acredita que o consumo de chás e água é necessário. Detectaram-se as seguintes crenças: existência de leite fraco, chá é bom para cólicas, a amamentação deixa o peito caído, tamanho da mama influencia no volume de leite e a lactação deve ser interrompida com o aparecimento dos dentes. Destacaram também a participação do pai na amamentação, porém 70% relataram que ele pode ajudar dando mamadeira. Evidencia-se a necessidade de ações que promovam uma postura mais favorável à amamentação no Ensino Fundamental.

Vivências de amamentação da criança portuguesa em idade escolar

“…In additi on, while playing, children do not talk to their friends about mothers breastf eeding their babies. These fi ndings are similar to that of other studies (4,10) , which had found, respecti vely, that only a small percentage of the interviewees always pretended to breastf eed or alternated between pretending to breastf eed and giving a bott le when playing with their dolls and that in childhood games, less than half the female scholars and very few male scholars reported that the dolls were breastf ed. The results involving the toys were not surprising, because children follow the model that is transmitt ed to them.…”

“…Previously, it was found that most Portuguese children were not used to seeing women breastf eed outside of their family environment, i.e., in public, and this experience could cause those children to develop a breastf eeding perspecti ve with reservati ons and taboos. These results are similar to those found in other studies (4,10,12) , confi rming that although children state they would like to breastf eed later in life, they would be embarrassed to do that in public.…”

“…The results were similar to those of studies developed by Brazilian authors (4,10) , in which most of the interviewed children knew they had been breastf ed. The remembrance of having been breastf ed may have a positi ve eff ect on the studied girls regarding their decision to breastf eed in the future.…”

“…It would be completely perti nent for children to always include the father as an important element and acti ve parti cipant in their percepti on of the breastf eeding process. This data was observed in a study developed by Brazilian authors (10) , who found that the studied children believed that the father's parti cipati on is very important in this process. Today, it is acknowledged that the support and encouragement from the partner and the couple's deciding together to breastf eed can mean the diff erence between successful and non-successful breastf eeding.…”

Breastfeeding promotion and support strategies based on Paulo Freire's epistemological categories

“…School is the main institutionalized environment of the pedagogic and teaching-learning process, of socialization and growth, where one acquires cardinal health-promoting values. Yet, for this to happen, the school curriculum needs to be flexible, the school staff needs to be trained and health professionals and the local community need to collaborate 24,25 .…”