OBJECTIVE: to explore the relationships between breast feeding and diarrhea and to assess the effect of exclusive breast feeding (EBF) on reducing the risk of diarrhea in Qatar. METHODS: this is a cross sectional survey carried out at the Well baby clinics and Pediatric clinics in the 11 Primary Health Care Centers and Hamad General Hospital, Hamad Medical Corporation, in Qatar. A multistage sampling design was used and a representative sample of 1500 Qatari infants and preschool children with an age range of 0-3 years and mothers agedbetween 18 to 47 years were surveyed during the period from October 2006 to September 2008 in Qatar. Out of the 1500 mothers, 1278 agreed to participate in this study, with a response rate of 85.2%. Questionnaires were administered to women who were attending Primary Health Care (PHC) Centers for child immunization. Data about the child gathered included date of birth, gender, birth order, consanguinity, socio-economic conditions, age of mother, level of education of mother, occupation, mode of breast feeding, sterilization of bottle and incident of diarrhea during the interview. Univariate statistical methods were performed for statistical analysis. RESULTS: of the 1278 infants studied, more than half (59.3%) were exclusively breastfed, and the mean duration was11.4 (SD=6.7). The risk for presenting diarrhea was higher in formula fed (48.7%) and partiallybreastfed children (37.3%) when compared to EBF(32.5%). CONCLUSION: EBF plays an important role in reducing the incidence and severity of infantile diarrhea.
Breast feeding; Diarrhea, infantile; Risk factors; Qatar
