Breastfeeding critical to children's health in some countries hard hit by HIV

Main Category: Pediatrics / Children's Health
Article Date: 30 Nov 2005 - 0:00 PDT

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Breastfed infants who are forced to wean before their second birthday in developing countries face a high risk of death, a particular concern given the high HIV rates in sub-Saharan Africa.

According to a study of 12,208 children born between 1988 and 1997 in rural Senegal, less than 1 percent of the children were weaned before 15 months of age. The main reasons for weaning were a mother's death or new pregnancy.

More than one in four of the children weaned before 15 months died before their second birthday, according to the study. Other recent studies have shown the importance of breastfeeding in the health of sub-Saharan African infants and children.

"Given the rarity of non- or only briefly breastfed infants in sub-Saharan Africa, prospective studies of infants of HIV-1 positive mothers are needed to provide reliable estimates of the effects of early weaning and type of replacement feeding on infant morbidity and mortality in various African contexts," the study's authors said. "Re-lactation by wet-nurses tended to be associated with lower child mortality, so despite its multiple constraints this strategy deserves further investigation in settings where it is culturally acceptable."

[From: "Early breastfeeding cessation in rural Senegal: causes, modes and consequences." Contact: Kirsten B. Simondon, MD, PhD, Institute de Recherche pour le Developpment, Montpellier, France]

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