Effectiveness of two methods of advising mothers on infant feeding and dietetic management of diarrhoea at an outpatient clinic in Peru.

The effectiveness of two educational intervention programmes in promoting infant feeding practices was assessed among mothers of small children attending a hospital's Oral Rehydration Unit in Peru. One group of mothers received 5 min of counselling and a recipe pamphlet. The other group received the same counselling plus a 20-min cooking demonstration. Both interventions had a statistically significant (p < 0.05) impact on maternal knowledge and practices; differences between the impact of the two practices were negligible. After merging both groups into a single sample, it was observed that changes over time were significantly large (p < 0.05). Knowledge rates were 27.6% before the intervention, 73.7% 2 days later and 75% 30 days later. The corresponding figures for practices were 2.6%, 58.3% and 37.5% respectively. We conclude that when place, time and message are adequately chosen, a simple method may be an effective way of good communication. We suggest that a larger implementation trial would be useful before starting larger infant feeding programmes.