Abstract

Despite global emphasis on exclusively breast feeding children during the first six months of life, most mothers stop breast feeding their children. The continuation of complementary feeding can prevent various diseases and even decrease the risk of developing asthma in childhood in vulnerable families by 50. The present descriptive-cross sectional study aims at investigating the growth of breastfed children and children fed with formula under the age of one year in Ilam. The investigated population consists of all the infants who visited urban health centers in Ilam to receive monthly care during winter in 2009. The investigated children were divided into two groups: breastfed children and children fed with formula. Researcher-developed questionnaires were used to gather information on the infants. The gathered data on the infants included demographic data, growth indices, and their parents' history of underlying diseases. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 16. In this study, 195 patients were investigated, of whom 96 cases (49.2) were males and 99 cases (50.8) were females. The highest frequency was for mothers aged 24-28. Furthermore, 108 cases (55.4) were breastfed children and 87 cases (44.6) were children fed with formula. Four cases (2.1) of breastfed children and 9 cases (4.6) of the children fed with formula suffered from FTT with average heights. Moreover, 4 cases (2.1) of breastfed children and 5 cases (2.6) of the children fed with formula suffered from FTT with average weights. The results of the study indicate that feeding children with breast milk until the age of six months and its continuation late on can considerably decreases weight and height disorders and also the number of admissions to the hospital due to diarrhea.