Exclusive Breastfeeding for BMI in Infants Aged 6-12 Months in Makassar City

Abstract

This high burden of childhood undernutrition coincided with the high prevalence of inadequate feeding practices of only 55% of infants <6 months of age being exclusively breastfed. The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of exclusive breastfeeding on BMI in infants aged 6-12 months in Makassar City. The type of research used is quantitative with an observational analytic approach with a cross sectional research design. The location of the research was carried out in Tamalanrea District, Tamalanrea Village. The population in this study were all babies in Tamalanrea District and the sample was mothers who had babies 6-12 months as many as 68 babies. Data processing and Data analysis was performed using SPSS and chi-square test. The results showed that exclusive breastfeeding for BMI with the proportion of infants who were not exclusively breastfed and had a thin BMI was 61.1% while infants who were not exclusively breastfed but had a normal BMI were 38.9%. Exclusively breastfed babies but have a skinny BMI of 31.3% while exclusively breastfed babies but have a normal BMI of 68.8% with p-value of 0.014 which means that there was an effect of exclusive breastfeeding on BMI in infants aged 6-12 months. The conclusion of the study was there is an effect of exclusive breastfeeding on BMI in infants aged 6-12 months in Makassar City. It was recommended that mothers give exclusive breastfeeding to their babies for 6 months and for further researchers to explore the reasons why mothers cannot give exclusive breastfeeding to their babies.