Effects of mother's training about complementary feeding and developmental skills on growth and development of 5-7 month infants referring to health centers in Shiraz, 2003

Central nervous system develops during the first years of life. Millions of synapses form among nervous cells before two years of age. The present research was performed to assess the effects of mothers’ training about complementary feeding and developmental skills on growth and development of 5-7 month infants referring to health centers in city of Shiraz in Southwest of Iran. Mothers of 5-7 month old infants were the units of this study. Two hundred and forty infants were selected randomly from those referring to two urban clinics and were assigned randomly to two groups of intervention and comparison. Mothers in the intervention group participated in monthly sessions for six months where pamphlets and movies were used for training. Infants’ height, weight, head circumference, arm circumference, and gross motor developmental functions (using Denver Developmental Test) were monthly assessed in both groups. Statistical analysis was performed on 207 subjects remaining after attrition. Mean weight gain (and its standard deviation) was 8.05 (and 7.52) Kg in intervention group and 0.64 (and 0.60) Kg in comparison group. Weight, height, head circumference, and arm circumference charts were drawn for the two groups and were compared with each other, with pertinent charts form National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), and with charts published by Ayatollahi et al. Developmental functions in the two groups were compared with each other and with Denver’s study results The results of this research show that the training of mothers on complementary feeding can contribute to infants’ weight gain (p=0.003), but does not have an effect on their height (p=0.1), head circumference (p=0.173), and arm circumference (p=0.882). Mothers’ training on developmental skills did not have any effect on developmental functions’ progression.