Attitudes and practices of family paediatricians in Italy regarding infant feeding
Acta Pediatrica, 08/01/2012

Radaelli G et al. – Family paediatricians in Italy have positive disposition towards infant feeding but their knowledge and practices are suboptimal with respect to the WHO criteria, especially regarding complementary feeding.

• A questionnaire was sent to 850 paediatricians across Italy, asking about attitudes and practices towards infant feeding with focus on the World Health Organization’s criteria.

• The response rate was 91.2%. Breastfeeding is recommended for 6–11 months (70.6%) or longer (29.4%).
• A 95% of paediatricians recommend introducing complementary foods throughout 4–5.9 months.
• Among paediatricians who give indications about the minimum acceptable diet (61.7%), recommendations agree with WHO in 71.3% and 83.3% of cases for infants aged 6–8 or 9–11 months, respectively.
• A 95.6% of paediatricians recommend consumption of meat for infants aged 6 months or more, and 98.4% use of formula milk for infants having breastfeeding stopped in the first year of life.
• Paediatricians reported own experience (73.4%) and reading (54.2%) as main sources of information. A 70% of paediatricians know the WHO/Infant and Young Child Feeding Practices criteria regarding breastfeeding but <5% the complementary feeding indicators.