Assessment of infant feeding practices of newborns discharged from neonatal intensive care unit of a tertiary care hospital and study of their growth pattern on subsequent follow up visits

Background: Breastfeeding is one of the key factor of reducing neonatal, infant and child mortality rate.While global efforts have significantly reduced child mortality over recent decades, there are still major challenges, especially in countries like India.While breastfeeding has proven long-term health benefits, the practice remains suboptimal.Aims: To assess the pattern of infant feeding practices of newborn following discharge from NICU at Tezpur Medical College and Hospital (TMCH) and to study the association between the pattern of infant feeding practices and growth parameters on subsequent follow ups.Material and methods: A hospital based observational study with 232 sample size was conducted in the Department of Paediatrics, Tezpur Medical College and Hospital, Tezpur, Assam, India and was carried out among Neonates discharged successfully from the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of Tezpur Medical College and Hospital, Tezpur, Assam over a period of one year in the state of Assam.Follow up was regularly done at specified interval and was compared among breastfed and non-breastfed infants.Descriptive statistics was used to describe the results.Results: Out of total 232 study participants (lactating mother) 94 (40.5%) were included in the exclusive breastfeeding group (EBF) and 138 (59.5) were in the non-exclusive breastfeeding group (non-EBF).The gender wise distribution of the neonates showed that 121 (52.2%) were male and 111 (47.8%) were female.The place of delivery of the maximum mothers (87.9%) was at healthcare facility and only a few mothers (12.1%) delivered neonates at home.The difference between mean anthropometric measurements of exclusively breast-fed infants and non-exclusively breast-fed infants at the end of six months were statistically significant.Conclusion: Breastfeeding is one of the key determinants for not only appropriate growth and development but also for infants survival and efforts should be made to initiate early breastfeeding and also to continue Exclusive breastfeeding.