PURPOSE: to determine the benefits of exclusive breastfeeding. However, only a minority of women engage in breastfeeding practices. This research is aimed to establish the time of exclusive breastfeeding as for preterm babies and observe whether they have a different level of exclusive breastfeeding in relation to the level achieved by the city of Maceió at the I and II PPAM-CDF. Additionally, other goals are to compare the breastfeeding and exclusive breastfeeding types of preterm and term newborns and determine the causes of early weaning and its consequences. METHOD: this is a field investigation with exploratory and longitudinal nature on the prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding of preterm and term babies. RESULTS: as for the percentage of breastfeeding and exclusive breastfeeding of preterm babies at 6 months old. There were significant differences in the birth weight variable. The causes for the early weaning, we found to be educational factors, followed by cultural factors. As a consequence of early weaning, the practice of oral habits occurred in 98.1% of the children. CONCLUSION: preterm children remained more time in breastfeeding and exclusive breastfeeding than the term babies. The educational and cultural factors were the main causes for the early weaning, and the consequence was the use of pacifier and bottle.
Breast Feeding; Weaning; Infant; Newborn
