The Effect Of Feeding Behavior On The Growth And Development Of Infant: A Cohort Study

Objective To investigate feeding behavior at the different stages of young childrendevelopment and explore the relationship between young children development andfeeding behavior; to provide a reference for the evaluation criteria of scientificfeeding behavior.Methods Depending on the state of the mother and child health care system in Hefeiand the characters of our study, an MCH station in a district of Hefei as our researchsite was selected. Infants who were taken “421” test were chosen as subjects in ourstudy. After the objects were determined, the uniform trained-investigators collectedthe infant general demographic Characteristics and information on height, weight,head circumference, chest circumference, physical examination and Feeding situationwhen the infants were42days,6,9,12,18and24m by face-to-face interviews withmothers.Results (1) The average birth weight of the infants was (3.36±0.34) kg, body length(50.19±1.44) cm.293cases were male infants, and mean birth weight was (3.41±0.34)kg. Female infants were223cases with the average birth weight and body length(3.30±0.34) kg and (50.05±1.53) cm, respectively.(2) The differences in WAZ andHAZ were statistically significant (P<0.05) for feeding behavior in the18-month-oldand24-month-old infant. Pairwise comparisons, the differences in WAZ of both groupA compared with group B and group C compared with group B were statisticallysignificant (P<0.05) in18-month-old.18and24months of age, there was nosignificant difference both between the bust group and head circumference group. The differences were statistically significant (P<0.05) in WAZ and HAZ when the feedingbehavior group B compared with group C at24months of age.(3) The results ofanalysis using Pearson correlation analysis showed that the weight and headcircumference of infants at18months of age and height24months were related withfeeding behavior scores (P<0.05).(4) the analysis of feeding behavior factors foundthat Food Preparation was associated with weight infants at18months (P<0.05);behavior of infants and height, weight, head circumference, chest circumference ofchildren in the18months of age were related(P<0.05);infant feeding environment inthe18-month-old was related with their height, weight, head circumference (P<0.05).(5) The differences were statistically significant (P<0.05) in comparison of BMI atage of18months.(6) The differences in obesity rates of different-month-old baby boyand baby girl were not statistically significant using university logistic regressionanalysis.(7) Feeding rate was51%in263cases of the age of4months with exclusivebreastfeeding,38.8%in200cases with mixed feeding, and10.3%in53cases withartificial feeding. When they were6mo old, there was baby’s anemia204cases(39.5%),159cases (30.8%) in9mo of age,114cases (22.1%) in12months ofage,43cases (8.3%) for18-month-old,24months old17(3.3%)cases. Comparing theincidences of anemia in exclusive breastfeeding group, mixed feeding group andartificial feeding group with each other,we found that the incidence of anemia inexclusive breastfeeding group was the highest and the difference was statisticallysignificant (P<0.05).(8) Introduction complementary feeding time was (4.4±1.1)months of age. Simply comparing food supplement, the difference in weight withinthe three groups was not statistically significant (P>0.05) Pairwise comparisonsshowed at6months of age,4-6-month-old food supplement compared with after6-month-old food supplement group had a statistically significant difference(P<0.05).Length of4-6-month-old food supplement group in the6-month-old and24-month-old compared with that of complementary feeding after6month of agegroup was the significantly different. And at the age of24months length wasstatistically significantly different for each other among the three groups (P<0.05).(9) The result of repeated measures analysis of variance showed, when babies was9months old, there was a significant difference among groups, and pairwisecomparisons showed4-6-month-old food supplement group compared with after6months food supplement group statistically different (P<0.05).Conclusion Family feeding behaviors including feeding patterns, the introduction ofcomplementary feeding and feeding behavior after the1-year-old had a very strongcorrelation with the growth and development of infants and young children, improperfamily feeding behavior increases the risk of infant anemia and obesity. We shouldexplore scientific and rational feeding behavior, and comprehensively improve thegrowth and development status to effectively promote the improvement of the dietarybehavior of infants based on the period of the window.