Skip to main content
. 2019 Apr 8;19:388. doi: 10.1186/s12889-019-6722-4

Table 3.

Factors associated with early introduction of complementary feeding

Early introduction of complementary feeding
<  4 months vs > 4 months
Univariate models Multivariate model
OR (95%CI) OR (95%CI)
Demographic characteristics
 Maternal age at child birth (years) 0.91(0.88,0.93)*** 0.94(0.91,0.98)**
 Maternal educational level
  Low vs high 3.82(2.82,5.19)*** 2.48(1.57,3.92)***
  Middle vs high 1.98(1.57,2.50) 1.26(0.91,1.75)
 Maternal ethnic background, non-native vs native 1.23(0.88,1.71)
 Maternal employment status, unemployed vs employed 1.33(1.02,1.75)* 0.90(0.57,1.39)
 Family structure, single parent vs two parents 2.56(1.32,4.97)** 1.88(0.69,5.13)
 Infant gender, girl vs boy 0.74(0.60,0.92)** 0.90(0.67,1.20)
 Parity, multipara vs primipara 0.66(0.54,0.81)*** 0.79(0.58,1.08)
Biological factors
 Maternal pre-pregnancy BMI 1.05(1.02,1.07)*** 1.02(1.00,1.06)
 Infant gestational age (weeks) 0.92(0.83,1.02)
 Infant weight at birth, Z-score 0.82(0.66,1.01)
 Infant postnatal weight gain, Z-scorea 1.33(1.15,1.55)*** 1.24(1.05,1.50)*
Behavioral factor
 Duration of any breastfeeding
  No breastfeeding 4.47(3.34,5.97)*** 2.84(1.90,4.30)*
  Breastfeeding for 0.5–4 months 3.62(2.75,4.78)** 2.63(1.82,3.80)*
  Breastfeeding for 4 months or longer Ref Ref
Psychosocial factors
 Maternal depressive symptoms, yes vs no b 1.35(0.98,1.86)
Parental perceptions on infant characteristics c
 “My child drinks greedily” 1.06(0.85,1.34)
 “My child always wants to eat when he/she sees someone eating” 1.75(1.42,2.16)*** 1.50(1.11,2.01)**
 “My child does not like plain water” 1.58(1.23,2.02)*** 1.08(0.76,1.54)
 “My child cried a lot in the first 3 months” 1.28(0.99,1.65)
Parental belief about feeding c
 “Fruit and vegetables can be given to the baby freely earlier than 4 months” 7.61(5.07,11.44)*** 5.60(3.18,9.85)***
Parental beliefs about infant weight c
 “I don’t like my child to be fat” 0.73(0.59,0.91)** 0.82(0.59,1.11)
 “I don’t like my child to be thin” 0.86(0.70,1.06)
Infant temperament
 Soothability 0.93(0.86,1.01)
 Distress to limitations 0.94(0.83,1.05)
 Distress to novel food 0.91(0.84,0.98) 0.90(0.80,1.01)
Social care factors
 Day-care attendance, yes vs no 0.65(0.52,0.81)** 0.66(0.47,0.93)*
 “BBOFT+” intervention vs no intervention 0.89(0.70,1.11)

Note: The multivariate model included the factors significantly (p < 0.05) associated with the outcome variable in the univariate models

*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, p < 0.10

aCalculated by changes in weight for age Z-scores in the first 3 months

bMaternal depressive symptom was defined as scored 10 or greater on the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale. This variable was defined as missing if the questionnaire had been filled in by the father or other care givers (n = 107)

cAgree/strongly agree vs neutral, disagree, or strongly disagree