How exclusive is exclusive breastfeeding? A comparison of data since birthwith current status data

Background There is no accepted and widely used indicator for exclusive bre astfeeding since birth. indeed, the difference between 'current status' dat a on exclusive breastfeeding and data on 'exclusive breastfeeding since bir th' is rarely recognized. We used data from a longitudinal study to examine this issue. Methods A descriptive longitudinal, prospective study design was used in wh ich 506 mother-infant pairs were included. The mothers completed daily reco rdings on infant feeding during the first nine months after birth. A resear ch assistant conducted fortnightly home visits with structured interviews. The resulting data on breastfeeding patterns are presented in two different ways: analysis of 'current status' data based on a single 24-hour recordin g of infant feeding at 2, 4 and 6 months of age, and analysis of data 'sinc e birth', i.e. data on infant feeding for every day, starting from birth un til the ages of 2, 4 and 6 months. Results A wide discrepancy between the results obtained from the two analys es was found. The difference in the exclusive breastfeeding rate was over 4 0 percentage points at both 2 and 4 months of age (92% versus 51% at 2 mont hs and 73% versus 30% at 4 months) and 9 percentage points at 6 months (11% versus 1.8%). Conclusions Current status indicators based on a 24-hour period may be inad equate and even misleading for many purposes. We propose that in many studi es an indicator called 'exclusive breastfeeding since birth' could be added .