Reasons mothers give for stopping breastfeeding by different weaning ages throughout the first year postpartum

To examine determinants of breastfeeding cessation by different weaning ages, we compared reasons mothers give for stopping breastfeeding at <1, 1-2, 3-5, 6-8, >9 months. Based on a total of 32 reasons surveyed on a Likert scale in the Infant Feeding Practices Study II, we estimated percentage of mothers considering each reason as important for stopping breastfeeding and categorized them by constructs from a factor analysis. To control for confounding effects of socio-demographic characteristics on the ranking of reasons, we estimated adjusted mean scores of each construct by including both weaning age and socio-demographic variables in the GLM models to predict the Least Square means. We found that concern about milk supply and perception of baby's lack of satisfaction by breast milk alone are the most frequently cited important reasons for all the ages examined so far (49-56% up to 6 months). As weaning age increases, most reasons related to physical adjustment, nutritional status and psychosocial distress became less frequently cited; whereas most reasons of lifestyle pattern became more frequently cited. For example, mother's desire that somebody else feed her baby and mother's concern about pumping/breastfeeding at work increased 39% and 158%, respectively, from <1 to 3-5 months. The comparison of adjusted mean scores indicates that decreases by weaning age are statistically significant for reasons related to physical adjustment, nutritional status, and psychosocial distress (p<0.05). The identification of temporal changes in the reasons for breastfeeding cessation is important for targeting breastfeeding interventions at those issues prominent for each age.