<p>In 2001 the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a revised global recommendation for exclusive breastfeeding for a child ´s first six months. The aim of this study was to investigate what information parents receiving from the Child Health Care about introduction of solids to breastfed infants and if they follow the recommendation. A further aim is to document reasons for introduction of solids at the selected time and describe what food parents start with.</p><p>The method has a descriptive and a qualitative design. Users of several Swedish parenting websites were asked to participate in the study. A total of 27 users completed the anonymous open-ended questions posted on the websites. Supplementary data (13 texts) were obtained from the forum discussions on parenting websites. Data were analyzed with content analysis.</p><p>Results: The new recommendation in Sweden from 2003 is introduction of solids at the age of 6 months. According to the parents the Child Health Care has recommended introduction of solids between 4 months and 6 months. A few of the parents said they got a double message, or received no recommendation. The timing when the first solids were given by the parents varied between 3 months and 10 months. The most common reason to introduce solids was that the “infant is interested in food”. Porridge made from commercial baby cereals, vegetarian purees or “finger food” was most commonly used for complementary food.</p><p> </p>

In 2001 the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a revised global recommendation for exclusive breastfeeding for a child ´s first six months. The aim of this study was to investigate what information parents receiving from the Child Health Care about introduction of solids to breastfed infants and if they follow the recommendation. A further aim is to document reasons for introduction of solids at the selected time and describe what food parents start with. The method has a descriptive and a qualitative design. Users of several Swedish parenting websites were asked to participate in the study. A total of 27 users completed the anonymous open-ended questions posted on the websites. Supplementary data (13 texts) were obtained from the forum discussions on parenting websites. Data were analyzed with content analysis. Results: The new recommendation in Sweden from 2003 is introduction of solids at the age of 6 months. According to the parents the Child Health Care has recommended introduction of solids between 4 months and 6 months. A few of the parents said they got a double message, or received no recommendation. The timing when the first solids were given by the parents varied between 3 months and 10 months. The most common reason to introduce solids was that the “infant is interested in food”. Porridge made from commercial baby cereals, vegetarian purees or “finger food” was most commonly used for complementary food.