Factors associated with exclusive breastfeeding duration among mothers of infants with stridor

Breastfeeding is well known for providing the most optimal nutrition for newborn infants. Even in healthy infants with an uncomplicated perinatal course, sustaining exclusive breastfeeding until six months of life can be influenced by many factors. Infants with stridor often have difficulties with feeding practices due to their inability to control breathing and swallowing, disruption of the suck-swallow-breathe sequence and airway protection during feeding. At present, there were extensive studies on the etiologies of stridor. However, there is no published research on the association of exclusive breastfeeding among infants with stridor conducted globally or in Malaysia. Information on exclusive breastfeeding duration among infants with stridor is essential to prevent adverse effects on both mother and infant. Therefore, this study aims to identify the associations of maternal characteristics, obstetric and birth outcomes, infant’s health characteristics, and lactation characteristics with the duration of exclusive breastfeeding among mothers of infants with stridor referred to the Otorhinolaryngology Department of Hospital Serdang and Hospital Ampang. This data study was obtained from a primary research study focused on weight gain. A total of 153 mother-child dyads with a child mean age of 3.14 ± 1.2 years participated in this study. An intervieweradministered questionnaire was given to mothers over the phone to gather information about breastfeeding practices, while consented secondary data was accessed through the hospital system (e-His) to gather information on infants' health characteristics. At six months, the exclusive breastfeeding duration rate was 43.8%, with an average of 4.50 ± 2.07 months. The majority were presented with a mild severity of stridor (n = 75, 49%). Mothers often experienced difficulties during breastfeeding due to the baby's having trouble sucking (10.0%), which indicated the symptoms of stridor. Duration of exclusive breastfeeding was negatively associated with the severity of stridor (ß=-0.478, p =0.001), while positively associated with the age starts with formula feeding (ß=0.532, p=0.001), the age for complementary feeding (ß=0.398, p=0.001), the age start for bottle feeding, including expressed breastmilk (ß=0.150, p=0.004), and the gestational week at birth (ß=0.153, p=0.048). Overall, the condition of stridor was associated with breastfeeding duration. The need to tackle this problem with proper management and guidelines is essential so that mothers of infants with stridor or other related health conditions may get the benefits from breastfeeding.

Text 122410.pdf Download (1MB) Official URL or Download Paper: https://ethesis.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/18574

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