Infant Feeding Practices

Abstract

THIS study was undertaken to briefly assess infant feeding practices in a particular community. We sought to find out what mothers were doing and how this compared with what physicians advised. Physicians were asked what their recommendations were and also what the reasons for their recommendations were. A questionnaire was given to mothers in the Mayo Clinic Well Child Clinic. Three hundred eighty-three responses were obtained. At the time of inquiry, the infants were 10 to 25 months old. Two hundred nineteen were boys and 164 were girls. All were normal, well children. It was recognized that the economic and general intellectual status of the group of mothers surveyed might not be comparable to that of other communities. However, this particular group might be expected to accept and follow even more readily the suggested practices than a less sophisticated group. Physicians' wives made up 20.1% of the group. Most of