ISBN 952-00-1067-X, ISSN 1236-2115
SUMMARY
In 2000 the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health carried out a nation wide survey of
the breastfeeding and complementary feeding among the Finnish children under one year of
age. Altogether 63 primary health care centres participated in the survey. Data was
received on the feeding practices regarding 8812 infants in total. The survey gives a
cross sectional picture of breastfeeding and complementary feeding of children under one
year of age. The survey was a follow-on to the survey carried out in 1995. The primary
health care nurses asked mothers about the feeding of their infants during 24 hours prior
to the visit at the child welfare clinics.
Nearly all newborn babies were breastfed. At the age of one month 87 % of babies were
breastfed, at the age three months 74% and at six months 51%. One out of four infants were
receiving breastmilk at the age of 11 months. Eight per cent of the infants less than one
month old were receiving infant formula exclusively. There were reagional differences in
the breastfeeding. Compared to the breastfeeding in 1995 there was a clear progress in all
the age groups, with the infants below the age one month as an excemption.
Sixty-five per cent of infants less than a month were being exclusively breastfed, at
the age of three months 45% and at the age of four months 14% only. The was no progress in
the exclusive breastfeeding of the infants below the age one month but there was a
positive trend in all other age groups in exclusive breastfeeding.
Giving infants water and nourishment by bottle is common. Fifty-four per cent of
infants below the age of one month were receiving some liquid by bottle. One third of them
were receiving infant formula by bottle, and nearly one out of two at the age three
months.
Giving infants complementry foods has shifted to a later age compred to the situation
in 1995. Nearly all infants were receiving vitamin D supplements according to the
recommendations.
Key words: Breastfeeding, breast milk, feeding, infant formula, vitamin