Breast-feeding, diarrhoea and sanitation as components of infant and childhealth: A study of large scale survey data from Ghana and Nigeria

Using Demographic and Health Survey datasets from Ghana and Nigeria, this s tudy examined whether the protective effects of breast-feeding are greatest where the poorest sanitation conditions prevail. It was found that mixed-f ed infants aged between 0 and 11 months tend to have a higher risk of diarr hoea than fully breast-fed children, while the risk of diarrhoea among wean ed infants is twice that of mixed-fed infants. The probit regression models employed in the analysis were used to predict the probability of diarrhoea associated with each breast-feeding pattern for both 'poor' and 'good' san itation areas. It was found that the risk of diarrhoea among mixed-fed infa nts in the poor sanitation areas tends to be high while the same risk among fully breast-fed infants tends to be minimal. In essence, the health risks of mixed feeding are real, particularly for infants aged less than 7 month s, and are even worse for those weaned before 6 months of age.