Maternal Behaviour and Socio-economic Influences on the Bacterial Content of Infant Weaning Foods in Rural Northern Thailand

Abstract

The bacterial contamination of infant weaning foods was examined in the context of a longitudinal study of lactation and infant growth, the Chiang Mai Lactation Study. Sixty-two mother-infant pairs were selected by random sampling from a rural area outside the city of Chiang Mai and studied for 48 hours in their homes on six occasions over the first year of life. Data on food hygiene practices and maternal factors were related to the total bacterial count per gram and coliform content of weaning foods. Bottle feeding, premastication, and mashing were significantly related to an increased bacterial content of weaning foods, while boiling foods to make soups, preparing in and feeding from a banana leaf, and using boiled water to prepare foods all reduced their bacterial content. Storage also increased the bacterial contamination in foods and foods were more highly contaminated in the rainy season. Maternal age and education were also related to some feeding practices. By promoting the feeding of traditional, but less contaminated weaning foods, an intervention is put forward which would aim to reduce weaning food contamination and thereby reduce incidence of diarrhoea in this area of Northern Thailand.

Improving microbiological food Safety in peri-urban Mali; an experimental study

“…Many studies have assessed the microbiological contamination of food and its role in diarrhoea causation (Ehiri et al, 2001;Henry, Patwary, Huttly, & Aziz, 1990;Imong et al, 1995;Sajilata, Singhal, & Kulkarni, 2002;Sheth, Patel, Sharma, & Seshadri, 2000). However, few of them resulted in an intervention.…”

Knowledge and Practice of Prechewing/Prewarming Food by HIV-Infected Women

“…Although associations between prechewing and transmission of group A streptococci, 10 hepatitis B virus, 11 Helicobacter pylori, 12 Epstein-Barr virus, 13 human herpesvirus 8, 14 and, most recently, HIV 1 have been documented or hypothesized, purported health benefits of this practice (such as its supporting infant nutrition and providing immunologic benefits) also have been proposed 3,5,15 and debated. 16,17 The present study documents that, in addition to prechewing, prewarming (a practice that could also expose an infant to the blood of an HIV-infected caregiver) exists in Latin America and that HIV-infected women are aware of both practices.…”

“…1 Prechewing (premastication) involves an adult chewing food or another item such as an herb or traditional medicine and then feeding it to the child. Although the practice of prechewing food for children, usually during the weaning period, has been described sporadically in various parts of the world, [2][3][4][5][6] including the United States, 1,7,8 this practice has not been systematically surveyed. Prewarming (or precooling) involves an adult holding food inside his or her own mouth to adjust the temperature of the food item before offering it to a child.…”

Survey of Food-hygiene Practices at Home and Childhood Diarrhoea in Hanoi, Viet Nam

“…The level of food contamination is related to the storage of foods at high ambient temperature (12), for long periods of time (10,11,14), and in the rainy season (10,15). Unclean utensils were also considered a source of food contamination (9,16,17).…”