Breast-feeding patterns in a rural village in Giza, Egypt

In a longitudinal study of infant feeding in rural Giza, Egypt, we found that 68.8% of the recruited mothers initiated early suckling of colostrum, but only 51.2% of the infants were exclusively breast-fed in the first week. Solid foods were introduced much earlier than at the recommended age of 4 to 6 months. Sixty percent of the mothers who participated in the study considered breast-feeding plus regular or irregular complementary feeding to be exclusive breast-feeding.