Infant-feeding practices among middle-class Anglos and Hispanics

Feeding practices have been analyzed prospectively in a sample of 1,112 healthy infants selected from families using an HMO. Data were collected at wellchild visits during the first year of life regarding breastfeeding, formula feeding, and use of solid foods and cow's milk. Seventy percent of all infants were breast-fed, with the mean duration of breast-feeding being almost 7 months. Factors positively associated with breast-feeding including education and marriage, whereas maternal employment outside the home and ethnicity (being Hispanic rather than Anglo-American) were related to bottle feeding. Solid foods were introduced earlier by Hispanics and, also, among less well educated and single women; maternal employment was unrelated to the introduction of solid foods. Multiple regression analysis indicated different patterns for the two ethnic groups: education and employment were related to almost all feeding practices for Anglo-Americans, whereas education and employment predicted few feeding practices for the Hispanics. These findings suggest that the effects of ethnicity are independent of those of education.