Relationships between Duration of Breastfeeding, Child Nutritional Status, and Development

Jamaluddin, Sri Rezki Wahdania
Faradilah, Andi
Fitriani, Rini

Journal of Maternal and Child Health
Vol. 6 No. 3 (2021)

Background: Breast milk is one of the factors that can affect growth and development. WHO is promoted exclusive breastfeeding and also encourages mother to raise breastfeeding until the children reach 2 year of age. This study was aimed to examine the relationships between the duration of breastfeeding, child nutritional status and development. Subjects and Method: This was an analytic obser­vational study with a cross sectional design. The study was con­duc­ted in three health centers, in Makassar, South Sulawesi, Indonesia, from December 2019 to January 2020. A total of 200 mot­hers with children aged 1-3 years old were selected by purposive sampling. The depen­dent variables were child nutritional status and child development. The independent variable was duration of breast­feeding. Child development was measured using developmental pre-screening question­naire. The other variables were collected by questionnaire. The relationships between vari­ables were analyzed by Pearson correlation. Results: Duration of breastfeeding was not associated with child nutritional status (r= -0.01; p= 0.970). Duration of breastfeeding increased child development, but it was statis­tically not significant (r= 0.04; p= 0.550). Conclusion: Duration of breastfeeding is not associated with child nutritional status. It increases child development, but it is statis­ti­cally not significant.