Growth, feeding practices and infections in black infants.

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the growth, early feeding practices and prevalence of infections in black infants.

DESIGN

Longitudinal study with prospective documentation of data.

SETTING

Kalafong Hospital, Pretoria.

PATIENTS: Term, appropriately grown infants with a positive rapid plasma reagin test on cord blood were enrolled. Infants who on follow-up did not have congenital syphilis were studied.

RESULTS

At birth the mean weight-for-age Z-scores corresponded with those of the National Center of Health Statistics (NCHS) reference population and increased during the first 3 months. A fall-off in growth performance in respect of weight gain occurred from 3 months and continued until 15 months when the study was terminated. At 6 and 12 months, 86% and 81% of infants respectively were receiving breast-milk. By 3 months, 78% of infants were receiving a supplementary food. At 9 months, 40% of infants had experienced an infection during the preceding 3 months. During the study, upper airway infections comprised 74% of all episodes of infection.

CONCLUSIONS

Compared with the NCHS reference population, black infants grow adequately during the first 3 months of life. This is followed by a persistent fall-off in growth performance associated with the introduction of supplementary food.