Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Jun 29:68:1605590.
doi: 10.3389/ijph.2023.1605590. eCollection 2023.

Feeding Strategies in Newborns and Infants During the COVID-19 Pandemic-Polish Cross-Sectional Study

Aleksandra Wesołowska  1   2 , Bartłomiej Walczak  3 , Kinga Kalita-Kurzyńska  1 , Aleksandra Mołas  1 , Agnieszka Bzikowska-Jura  1
Affiliations

Feeding Strategies in Newborns and Infants During the COVID-19 Pandemic-Polish Cross-Sectional Study

Aleksandra Wesołowska et al. Int J Public Health. .

Abstract

Objective: We aimed to analyze factors affecting feeding strategies of newborns and infants during the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland. Methods: The cross-sectional study using a self-developed CAWI questionnaire was conducted between February and April 2021 among Polish mothers. The analysis included responses from 1,485 women who delivered during the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. The inferential analysis uses Parson's chi-square test and the series of logistic models. The data were weighted to adjust age and educational level distribution. Results: When hospitalized, lack of skin-to-skin contact (OR = 0.094; p < 0.001, 95% CI [0.057 0.156]), not being informed about direct breastfeeding in the pandemic (OR = 0.195, p = 0.006, 95% CI [0.61 0.62]) and being suspected for COVID-19 (OR = 0.379, p < 0.001, 95% CI [0.223 0.642]) reduced the probability of breastfeeding. Feeding plans and feeding after leaving the hospital were impacted only by the educational level (OR = 2.463, p = 0.028, 95% CI [1.1 5.518]). Conclusion: While the mother's education level plays a key role in the nutrition plans and long-term feeding strategy, PUI status and hospital practices (lack of skin-to-skin and proper information) had a major negative impact on breastfeeding rates in the hospital.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; exclusive breastfeeding; human milk; infants’ feeding; infants’ nutrition.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they do not have any conflicts of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Feeding strategies of newborns and infants (Poland, 2021). 1 Mixed feeding - human milk based diet (HMD) + infant formula (IF). 2 Complementary feeding - mixture of human milk based (HMD) diet and/or infant formula (IF) and other additional food products such as: water, juice, tea; solid, soft or semi-liquid foods. Source: Survey on newborns and infants feeding in COVID-19 pandemic, Poland. 2021.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Victora CG, Bahl R, Barros AJD, França GVA, Horton S, Krasevec J, et al. Breastfeeding in the 21st century: Epidemiology, Mechanisms, and Lifelong Effect. The Lancet (2016) 387(10017):475–90. 10.1016/S0140-6736(15)01024-7 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Meek JY, Noble L, Section on Breastfeeding. Policy Statement: Breastfeeding and the Use of Human Milk. Pediatrics (2022) 150(1):e2022057988. 10.1542/peds.2022-057988 - DOI - PubMed
    1. World Health Organization. Indicators for Assessing Breast-Feeding Practices: Report of an Informal Meeting. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization; (1991).
    1. Pang W, Bernard J, Thavamani G, Chan Y, Fok D, Soh SE, et al. Direct vs. Expressed Breast Milk Feeding: Relation to Duration of Breastfeeding. Nutrients (2017) 9(6):547. 10.3390/nu9060547 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. World Health Organization. Breastfeeding (2023). Available from: https://www.who.int/health-topics/breastfeeding#tab=tab_1 (Accessed October 4, 2022).