My SciELO
Services on Demand
Journal
Article
Indicators
Cited by SciELO
Access statistics
Related links
Cited by Google
Similars in SciELO
Similars in Google
Share
Pediatría Atención Primaria
Print version ISSN 1139-7632
Abstract
MARTINEZ RUBIO, Ana; CANTARERO VALLEJO, Mª Dolores and ESPIN JAIME, Beatriz. How do primary care paediatricians guide complementary feeding in Spain?. Rev Pediatr Aten Primaria [online]. 2018, vol.20, n.77, pp.35-44. ISSN 1139-7632.
Objectives:
to assess the attitudes of Spanish primary care paediatricians regarding complementary feeding and review the published evidence on the baby-led-weaning approach.
Methods:
a thirty-six item questionnaire about complementary feeding and baby-led-weaning was drafted and distributed through the Spanish Association of Primary Care Paediatricians mailing list.
Results:
we received 579 responses. Of all respondents, 95.3% reported using an informational handout (28.6% of their own making). Paediatricians recommended introducing complementary foods at age 6 months (60.6%), 5 months (24.9%) and 4 months (10.7%), and cereal was the food recommended to start complementary feeding by 39.4% of respondents. Nearly 61% of physicians recommended spoon-feeding, 21.4% bottle-feeding and 17.4% no particular feeding method. Of all respondents, 54.6% recommended giving the child foods to chew as soon as the child showed interest in it, and up to 10.7% recommended delaying it under age 1 year. Seventy-nine percent knew about baby-led-weaning, 45.3% recommended it in some cases and 6.6% routinely. The main concerns of the respondents were lack of information (67.2%), lack of scientific evidence (10.6%) and the potential risk of choking (10.6%).
Conclusions:
there is huge variability in the recommendations regarding complementary feeding. The approach used most frequently in Spain is the traditional one. The number of paediatricians that know about the baby-led-weaning approach is growing, but few are prepared to recommend it routinely.
Keywords : Feeding; Infant.