Table 2.

Effects of the Starting Early Intervention on Infant Feeding Practices and Maternal Infant Feeding Knowledge at 3 Months Old

Feeding Practices and Knowledge	Group (n=456)		p-value	Odds Ratio or Mean Differencea	95% CI
	Control (n=235)	Intervention (n=221)
Breastfeeding (BM) in newborn period
Ever breastfed in the hospital	95.3 %	95.9 %	.82	1.16a	.47 – 2.85
Exclusive BM in the hospital	31.1 %	37.1 %	.20	1.31a	.89 – 1.93
Exclusive BM leaving the hospital	37.9 %	45.7 %	.11	1.38a	.95 – 2.01
Breastfeeding at 3 months old
Any BM at 3 months	80.4%	83.3%	.47	1.21	.75 – 1.95
Exclusive BM at 3 months	23.4 %	33.0 %	.03	1.61a	1.07 – 2.44
100% BM on 24-hour diet recallb	33.0 %	42.7 %	.04	1.51a	1.03 – 2.21
Breastfeeding intensity continuous score (Mean (SD))b,c	59.7 (39.7)	67.7 (39.3)	.03	−8.0b	−15.3 – −0.75
Breastfeeding intensity categoriesb,c			.006
Low intensity (< 20% BM)	23.9%	20.5%		.63a	.39 – 1.02
Medium intensity (20–80% BM)	34.6%	23.6%		.51a	.33 – .78
High intensity (> 80% BM)	41.5%	55.9%		REF
Ever gave BM and formula at the same feeding	31.1 %	22.4 %	.15	.64a	.36 – 1.15
BM and formula at same feed per day (Mean (SD))b	4.3 (14.1)	2.0 (7.2)	.03	2.30b	.22 – 4.38
Other feeding at 3 months old
Introduced tea, water, juice or cereal in the bottle	16.7 %	6.3 %	.001	.34a	.18 – .64
Maternal infant feeding knowledged
Total knowledge scoree (Mean (SD))	9.8 (1.90)	10.3 (1.56)	.002	.51	.19 to .83
1. Infant formula is as good as breast milkf	69.5%	63.3%	.17	.76	.51 – 1.12
2. If a baby is breastfed, he or she will be less likely to get ear infections	86.3%	90.5%	.19	1.52	.85 – 2.72
3. If a baby is breastfed, he or she will be less likely to get to get a cough or a cold	88.8%	93.2%	.14	1.73	.89 – 3.35
4. If a baby is breastfed, he or she will be less likely to get diarrhea	81.1%	89.1%	.02	1.91	1.12 – 3.27
5. If a baby is breastfed, he or she will be less likely to become overweight	85.4%	90.5%	.11	1.63	.91 – 2.90
6. Babies should be fed only breast milk for the first 6 months	91.0%	92.3%	.74	1.19	.61 – 2.32
7. Formula is easier to digest than breast milkf	87.6%	91.4%	.22	1.51	.82 – 2.78
8. Breastfeeding helps mothers lose weight fasterg	82.7%	93.6%	<.001	3.08	1.63 – 5.84
9. Most women make enough breast milk for their babies to grow healthy	84.5%	89.6%	.13	1.57	.90 – 2.75
10. Feeding both breast milk and formula at the same feeding may cause you to feed your baby too muchh	67.2%	78.7%	.006	1.80	1.18 – 2.75
11. Feeding both breast milk and formula increases the amount of your breast milkf	77.7%	72.4%	.23	.75	.49 – 1.16
12. You should not add anything to a bottle besides breast milk or formula	81.1%	89.1%	.02	1.91	1.12 – 3.27

^aOdds ratio presented for categorical variables and mean difference presented for continuous variables.

^bn=454 (control n=234, intervention n=220)

^cBreastfeeding intensity is defined as the percentage of all feedings in the past 24 hours that were breast milk using the 24 hour recall.

^dPercentages reflect the percentage of mothers in the control and intervention groups who responded correctly to each of the individual statements.

^en=450 (control n=230; intervention n=220).

^fStatements in which the correct response was ‘false’.

^gn=451 (control n=231; intervention n=218).

^hn=453 (control n=232; intervention n=219).