Early weaning determinants in a district of Campinas, Brazil

Abstract

Objective
To investigate determinants of early weaning in Northwest of Campinas, Sao Paulo state, Brazil.

Methods
During the National Immunization Day on June 8th, 2001, a survey was conducted among 385 children less
than 2 years old (10% of attendance). The responsible for the child was interviewed about social, demographic,
and health assistance characteristics, age, and reasons for the introduction of other foods to the child and its
weaning. The complete interruption of breast-feeding before the age of 6 months was considered as early
weaning. The associations between weaning and cause and/or risk factors were investigated by bivariate
correlation. To check if the association was maintained, logistic regression was run to identify the best
predictors for early weaning. The proportions’ difference test was performed to identify alleged reasons for
early weaning.

Results
Early weaning affected 63.6% of the surveyed children. The education level of the mother was associated to
early weaning, according to t-test (p = 0.04). There was no association between early weaning and mother’s
age, marital status or occupation, family density, income, kind of health assistance, and gender of the child.
Logistic regression indicated time of artificial milk or formula introduction as predictor for early weaning
(p<0.0001). The alleged reasons for early weaning were: decrease of maternal milk production, baby’s refusal
to breast-feed, mother’s occupation, pain during breast-feeding, breast injuries, and sickness of either mother
or baby.

Conclusion
The results indicated the early introduction of milk or formulas as a predictor for early weaning.