The influence of infant food advertising on infant feeding practices in St. Vincent

ABSTRACT

A survey to examine the extent to which infant food advertising could be shown measurably to influence infant feeding practice was carried out in S. Vincent in the eastern Caribbean. A questionaire was administered to mothers of about 200 children one to two uears old, nearly a complete sample in each of two towns. Infant food advertising was found to be uncommon. The typical infant feeding pattern, largely a combination of both breast and bottle feeding, had existed for decades. Despite the fact that this was not a very appropriate setting for such a study, and that there were a number of methodological constraints, the results of two multiple regression analyses suggested that the more a mother was influenced by infant food advertising, the sooner she began to bottle feed and the sooner she stopped breastfeeding. The cessation of all promotion of commercial infant foods to the public as well as to health professionals, is called for. (AU)