Abstract

Background: Colostrum and Breast milk are the first source of nutrition of newborn, which are essential for the newborn’s growth and development .In underdeveloped countries exclusive breastfeeding has played a major role in reducing mortality of infants by preventing diarrheal diseases and bacterial infections.

Aim: To ascertain the frequency of newborns who are breastfed exclusively by mothers and to get a comparison of gain in growth parameters of infants who are formula fed versus breastfed.

Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted in Pediatrics Department, Mayo Hospital, and Lahore for six months after approval of synopsis. Study samples were selected using sampling method of non-probability purposive sampling. A written consent was taken from guardians or parents of newborns. Information like age of newborn, name, corrected gestational age, phone numbers was documented.

Results: In our study, 16.56+6.26 days was the mean age of infants and the average gestational age of babies was 38.52z0.97 weeks. The ratio of male to female infants was 1.3:1. The educated mothers were 273(68.3%) and uneducated mothers were 127(31.8%), 52.25% patients were on breast feeding and 47.75% patients were on formula feeding. The infants were followed at 10th, 14th week and 4th month of age and a significant differences in weight was seen between the study groups with p value <0.05

Conclusion: 52.3% of infants in our study were exclusively breastfed. Our study showed that there was better gain in weight in breastfed infants as compared to formula fed but the change in length was not statistically significant in the two groups.

Keywords: Formula feeding, Weight, length, infants, newborn, breastfed