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Breastfeeding trends in a municipality in central-southern São Paulo state: 1995-1999-2004

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate breastfeeding practices in 2004 in the municipality of Botucatu, Sao Paulo State and to identify trends in the past ten years. METHODS: This is an epidemiological study comparing the results of three population-based cross-sectional studies (1995-1999-2004), using similar methodologies, assessing the breastfeeding practices among children under age 12 months. Data were obtained during multiple vaccination campaigns using a recall questionnaire to investigate the child's feeding in the previous day. The differences in the proportion of children in each type of feeding (exclusive breastfeeding, predominant breastfeeding, and breastfeeding) in the three surveys, according to selected age groups (0-1 month, 0-4 months, 0-6 months and 0-12 months), were analyzed using a z-test. RESULTS: For children under age 4 months, there was a marked and progressive increase (19.1% in 1995 and 36.9% in 2004) in exclusive breastfeeding and a reduction in predominant breastfeeding, with statistically significant differences. The same was observed among children under age 6 months, with 15% increase in exclusive breastfeeding in 1995 and 29.6% in 2004, representing a total 128.0% increase. Regarding breastfeeding, there were slight increases in prevalence for children younger than 4 months, 6 months, and 1 year, but significant differences were not found. The median duration of exclusive breastfeeding increased by 14 days (82.0%) and that of breastfeeding, by 85 days (50.9%) in the ten-year period. CONCLUSION: With the expressive increase in the prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding among children under six months and the increase in median duration of exclusive breastfeeding and of breastfeeding, we may conclude that breastfeeding in the municipality evolved favorably. However, the situation in 2004 is still far from fulfilling current recommendations on infant feeding.