SUSTAINING THE FUTURE WELL BEING OF OUR CHILDREN: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF BREASTFEEDING PRACTICES IN TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO

摘要

Breastfeeding is a critical dimension of children’s prospective healthand eventual wellbeing as adults. According to WHO/UNICEF, recommendedstandards for breastfeeding require that infants be breastfed exclusively for the firstsix months with continued breastfeeding for 2 years or more. This is an importantconcern given women’s recent thrusts in labour market pursuits including theirinitiatives toward advancing their education and training attributes and theircareers. The paper examines whether or not, appropriate feeding standards havebeen practiced among 424 children under 2 years and the extent to which a range ofsocio-economic factors such as socio-economic status, mother’s education, mother’sparticipation in the labour force, mother’s age, place of residence and sex of child,impact upon variation in such feeding standards. The data are drawn from the Trinidadand Tobago MICS which was conducted under the auspices of the Ministryof Social Development, The Government of Trinidad and Tobago in 2006. Withrespect to socio-economic status, labour market experiences and the need to fulfilleducational and training requirements, the paper makes recommendations fortreating mother’s breastfeeding practices in the postpartum period as such practicesimpact subsequent human development capabilities of the next generation.