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Maternal nutrition, infants and children

Influences on infant feeding decisions of first-time mothers in five European countries

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 66, pages 914–919 (2012)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES:

Infant feeding decisions made by new parents have significant health implications. The study aimed to investigate: influences on infant feeding decisions; characteristics of mothers reporting reliance on alternative information sources; associations between reliance on different sources and intentions to exclusively breastfeed and introduce complementary foods later; and subsequent breastfeeding and weaning behaviours.

SUBJECTS/METHODS:

First-time mothers in five European countries (England, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Spain) completed questionnaires about the importance of 17 influences on infant feeding choices at birth and 8 months later, during 2007–2008. Use of individual sources and reliance on four categories (family and friends, health professionals, written materials, audio-visual media) were compared between countries. Associations between information sources used and mother characteristics, feeding intentions and behaviours were investigated using appropriate statistical tests.

RESULTS:

In all, 2071 first-time mothers provided baseline data; 78% at 8 months. Variation exists between countries in the influence of different sources on feeding decisions of first-time mothers. Across all countries, the most important influences at both time points were books, partner and antenatal midwife. Mothers in higher income quintiles and remaining at school beyond age 16 years reported greater reliance on written sources (P<0.0005). Mothers relying most on written sources reported longer exclusive breastfeeding (P=0.002), and a tendency to introduce foods other than milk later (P=0.079) than mothers relying most on personal or professional contacts.

CONCLUSION:

Further research is required about which dissemination strategies are most effective at improving infant feeding behaviours in varied cultural settings, and for different socio-economic groups.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the maternity hospitals that enabled us to recruit the mothers in this study, and to the mothers who completed the questionnaires. This study was supported as a part of the European Project ‘Early Nutrition Programming-EARNEST’ within the 6th Framework Programme. No. FOOD-CT-2005-007036.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Food, Consumer Behaviour and Health Research Centre, University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey, UK

    H Gage, M Schmid, B Egan, J Morgan & M Raats

  2. Department of Mathematics, University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey, UK

    P Williams

  3. Dr von Hauner Children’s Hospital, Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich, Germany

    J Von Rosen-Von Hoewel & B Koletzko

  4. Functional Foods Forum and Institute of Biomedicine, University of Turku, Turku, Finland

    K Laitinen

  5. Department of Paediatrics, University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary

    V Jakobik, E Martin-Bautista & T Decsi

  6. Department of Paediatrics, University of Granada, Granada, Spain

    C Campoy

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  1. H Gage
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  2. P Williams
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  4. K Laitinen
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  9. J Morgan
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  11. C Campoy
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Correspondence to H Gage.

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Additional information

Contributors: HG contributed to the analysis and wrote the first draft; JRH, KL, VJ, EMB, MS collected data and contributed to analysis; JM, MR contributed to the analysis; MR conceived the study; PW undertook the statistical analysis; all authors contributed to the design and read and approved the final manuscript.

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Gage, H., Williams, P., Von Rosen-Von Hoewel, J. et al. Influences on infant feeding decisions of first-time mothers in five European countries. Eur J Clin Nutr 66, 914–919 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2012.56

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