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Do mother's self‐reported reasons for introducing solid foods vary by age at introduction and socio‐demographic characteristics?
Author(s) -
Clayton Heather Breeze,
Scanlon Kelley,
Perrine Cria,
Li Ruowei
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.26.1_supplement.806.3
Subject(s) - breastfeeding , logistic regression , medicine , infant formula , food group , demography , environmental health , psychology , pediatrics , sociology
Early solid food introduction may shorten breastfeeding duration and increase risk of adverse health outcomes. We analyzed data from 1,117 women who participated in the Infant Feeding Practice Study II, a longitudinal study of mothers and their infants, to describe mothers’ reasons for introducing solid foods. From a 12‐ item list of reasons, we calculated the percentage of women who indicated a reason for introducing solid food as “important” and used multiple logistic regression to assess whether reasons varied by socio‐demographic characteristics and infant age at introduction. The four most common reasons for introducing solid foods were: (1)“my baby was old enough to begin eating solid food” (91%), (2)“my baby wanted the food I ate or in other ways showed an interest in solid food” (71%), (3)“I wanted to feed my baby something in addition to breast milk or formula” (65%), and (4)“a doctor or other health care professional said my baby should begin eating solid food” (62%). In multivariable models, age at introduction to solid foods varied significantly for reasons 1,2 & 4 while socio‐demographic characteristics varied significantly for reasons 2,3 & 4. Women's reasons for introducing solid foods varied significantly by age at introduction, and by socio‐demographic characteristics.