Assess the rate of exclusive breasfeeding and intake of human milk by the method "Dose-to-mother"

Abstract

Exclusive breastfeeding increases the infant's survival. The assess of it rate is overestimed by the self- declarative questionnaire to mothers. The alternative technique deuterium oxide "dose-to-mother" more accurate, easy and non-invasive enables to assess intake of fluids other than Human Milk . In this longitudinal study, the method is used first time in Mali to assess rate of exclusive breastfeeding and human milk intake by infants under 6 months. The study was conducted between 2011 and 2014 in Bamako. Total of 71 mothers-child pairs were followed from the 3rd to the 6th postpartum months for analysis of 1750 saliva samples by a FTIR. Results showed that rate of exclusive breastfeeding by "dose- to- mother" were 42,3% and 16,66% respectively in the 3rd and 6th vs.74,6% and 65,5% by the mothers' self-declarative. The difference between two methods is statistically significant. Intakes human milk were 1.063 kg/day and 1,233 kg/day. In conclusion, despite the counseling on child's feeding, mothers award very low importance to practice exclusive breastfeeding.