Diarrhea and Malnutrition: Breastfeeding Intervention in a Transitional Population

Abstract

Diarrheal disease is a main cause of weight loss and growth faltering and stunting in rural children living under low socioeconomic conditions, and diarrhea is one of the most important events precipitating severe protein—energy malnutrition. An intervention in a Costa Rican hospital, consisting of partial rooming-in and promotion of breast-feeding during the short hospital stay, appears to induce a marked increase in breast-feeding in the neonatal period as compared to observable prevalence before the intervention. The intervention seems to stimulate nursing beyond neonatal age: more than 50Wo of infants remain at the breast by six months of age. Breast-feeding was much more prevalent in the intervened population than in a population not subjected to the stimuli; it was also more prevalent than in the rural area of Costa Rica as reflected by a survey conducted in a representative sample one year earlier. Furthermore, additional exposure of the mothers to field health workers seems to result in a further promotional effect on breast-feeding. The population affected by these interventions exhibited a lower rate of diarrhea) disease and an increased survival.