A comparison of growth patterns in breast and bottle-fed infants with congenital heart disease.
To describe the feeding and growth patterns of breast and bottle-fed infants with congenital heart disease. A descriptive correlational design was used to examine relationships between incidence of breast feeding, severity of disease, and patterns of weight gain for 45 mother-infants dyads. Using chi square analysis, length of hospital stay was found to be significantly related to the decision to switch from breast to bottle feeding. Bottle-fed infants fell significantly off their individual growth curves than did breast-fed infants. Severity of cardiac defect was not a predictor of the infant's ability to breast feed nor of the duration of breast feeding after discharge. Maternal variables may account for initial failure of breast feeding.