Disseminating weaning messages: an intervention trial

This article reports a non-randomised intervention study conducted in two market towns to find out whether participant-centred health education discussions improve parents’ knowledge and actions concerning infant feeding. Following an initial quiz, parents of 8-week-old infants attended a discussion on weaning (intervention) or home safety (control). They were then asked to complete a questionnaire about their knowledge and actions concerning weaning when their infants were 7-9months old. A total of 61 parents took part in the intervention and 49 in the control. In the post-intervention questionnaire, the intervention group reported using more home-cooked foods and less commercially-prepared baby foods and knew the optimum time to register their infants with the dentist. These results suggest that participant-centred discussions are an effective way of disseminating public health messages concerning infant feeding.