A comparison of the effect of breast feeding, mixed feeding and top feeding on weights of infants and children

Abstract

A retrospective analysis of 503 patients admitted to diarrhoea ward between June to August 2003 was done regarding their weight and feeding practices. Out of them 36 children were excluded as they did not full fill the required criteria. So a total of 467 patients were studied. The patients were divided into three groups depending upon whether they were breast fed, mixed i.e. both breast and top fed, or top fed respectively. All patients between the ages of birth and 24 months were included. The number of patients in breast fed, mixed fed and top fed were 134,135 and 198 respectively. Male to female ratio was 1.4:1,1.5:1,1.4:1,with mean age in breast fed group for females 6.9± 4.7 months and males 10.3±7.63,in mixed fed group 8.3± 5.97 months and 8.4 ± 6.4 months and in top fed group 8.25±7.35 months and 7.65 ±5.72 months respectively. Mean weight in each group was 6.1±1.9, 5.7 ± 2.1 and 4.9±2.0 kg. When weight of breast fed children was compared with those of mixed fed the difference was not statistically significant with p value of 0.236 while the comparison with top fed was highly significant with p value of 0.000. Similarly babies on mixed feeding had significantly better weight than that of top fed with p value of 0.004. Although it has been stressed upon and a lot of effort has been put in to encourage breast feeding but still top feeding and mixed feeding are on the top resulting in malnourished and wasted children. From our study it is obvious that top fed children are grossly malnourished, and exclusive breast feeding is low. We need to take more steps to encourage breast feeding.