Abstract

PIP: In 1982, a researcher studied breast feeding practices and supplementation of rice among 621 infants in Dhaka and 4 rural areas of Dhaka district, Bangladesh. At this time, the mean age for all the infants was 35.2 months. 3.3% of breast feeding urban mothers supplemented rice to their infants' diet within 3 months, while no rural mothers did so. Urban mothers were more likely to supplement earlier than rural mothers up until 21 months when the 2 sets of mothers were relatively equal (54.6 and 50.5% respectively). Thereafter the pattern switched to rural mothers being more likely to supplement rice to the diet of breast milk than were urban mothers. Further, 8% of urban mothers and 2.8% of rural mothers gave no rice at all to their infants up to the time of the survey. The younger the age at which the infant was given rice the more education the mother had, for example, urban: no education, 26.3 months; secondary school, 18.1; rural: no education, 23.8; secondary school, 22.1. Furthermore, if mothers worked, they were more likely to add rice to the diet at an earlier age than were those who stayed at home. The survey also indicated that both lower and higher family income groups in urban areas gave rice to their infants at higher ages than those in middle brackets. In rural areas, however, an erratic trend in the mean age of infant for rice by family income was observed. As for religion in urban areas, Hindu mothers supplemented rice to their infants' diet somewhat earlier than Moslem mothers, but in rural areas, the situation was opposite this. Older mothers in urban areas gave rice to their infants at a relatively lower age than the younger mothers. As for rural areas, the researcher noted no regular trend for age of mothers in the average age of the infants at which rice was supplemented.