Growth, feeding practices and infections in black infants

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the growth, early feeding practices and prevalence of infections in black infants.

Design: Longitudinal study with prospective documentation of data.

Setting: Kalafong Hospital, Pretoria.

Patients: Term, appropriately grown infants with a positive rapid plasma reagin test on cord blood were enrolled. Infants who on follow-up did not have congenital syphilis were studied.

Results: At birth the mean weight-for-age Z-scores corresponded with those of the National Center of Health Statistics (NCHS) reference population and increased during the first 3 months. A fall-off in growth performance in respect of weight gain occurred from 3 months and continued until 15 months when the study was terminated. At 6 and 12 months, 86% and 81% of infants respectively were receiving breast-milk. By 3 months, 78% of infants were receiving a supplementary food. At 9 months, 40% of infants had experienced an infection during the preceding 3 months. During the study, upper airway infections comprised 74% of all episodes of infection.

Conclusions: Compared with the NCHS reference population, black infants grow adequately during the first 3 months of life. This is followed by a persistent fall-off in growth performance associated with the introduction of supplementary food.