OBJECTIVE: To validate the information of mothers' memory about breastfeeding and sucking habits in the first months of their children's life. METHODS: A cohort study followed 86 children for 36 months from birth. In the initial moment, zero to three months-old infants were assessed about breastfeeding, sucking habits and semisolid food introduction. Nearly six years after the initial study, 53 mothers of these children were re-interviewed regarding their recall about breastfeeding, sucking habits and semisolid food introduction. Kappa, McNemar, Student's t, and intraclass correlation tests were used to verify the association between previous and current maternal memory. RESULTS: Disagreement between previous and current maternal memory was found regarding thumb-sucking (McNemar; p=0.001) and pacifier use (McNemar; p=0.009). In addition, mothers in the current interview report older ages for introducing bottle feed (Student's t; p=0.043) and semisolid food (Student's t; p=0.001). However, memory about duration of breastfeeding presented high intraclass correlation coefficient (r=0.923; p=0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Maternal information about duration of breastfeeding and age of pacifier withdraw is valid for use in retrospective studies. Introduction of bottle feeding, pacifier and semisolid foods during the first six months of life may suffer a recordatory bias.
breast feeding; sucking behavior; bias
