FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH EARLY WEANING IN THE BRAZILIAN CONTEXTO

Abstract

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that children be fed exclusively with breast milk directly from the breast or expressed, without the inclusion of water or teas until six months of age. Early weaning, which corresponds to the total or partial interruption of exclusive breastfeeding before the age of six months, presents itself as a public health problem, capable of leading to malnutrition, childhood obesity and contributing to an increase in child mortality, being related to social factors , economic and cultural. The study aimed to identify the causes of early interruption of breastfeeding in Brazil. This is a descriptive exploratory study of the integrative literature review type, of articles published between 2018 and 2022, available in the Base de Dados de Enfermagem (BDENF), Literatura Latino-americana e do Caribe em Ciências da Saúde (LILACS) e Sistema Online de Busca e Análise de Literatura Médica (MEDLINE), pela Biblioteca Virtual de Saúde. Data collection was carried out in May 2023. At first, 2,671 articles were found. After applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 21 articles remained, and after reading the content, 12 articles were selected. After reading the studies in detail, it was possible to choose three categories of analysis: maternal factors that influence early weaning; myths, beliefs and artificial teats that contribute to early weaning; professional strategies to reduce factors associated with early weaning. Factors that contribute to early weaning were identified as maternal return to work, maternal age, the presence of nipple fissures, previous bad experience, beliefs and myths about breastfeeding and the use of pacifiers and bottles. The implementation of health education/promotion strategies should be encouraged to promote, protect and support breastfeeding, reducing early weaning in Brazil.