This is a study of infant feeding practices among Bedouin tribes residing in the Negev, Israel. The objectives are: the evaluation of changes in infant feeding practices during the first year of life and their relationship to physical growth of children and on gastrointestinal and respiratory diseases during the first year of life. The information obtained covers 5,000 mother-infant pairs. Two samples have been identified, one was identified at birth and a subsample of these births was followed for a period of 5-8 months. Another sample of children was identified at 6 months of age and followed prospectively to 18 months of age. The data collection is complete and the data has been computerized by the Ben Gurion University staff. Planning for the analysis and using the tapes have identified a number of problems in the use of the tapes which required resolution and involved very frequent interaction with staff at Ben Gurion University. This and the lack of programming support has slowed down the analysis. Ongoing analyses are focusing on seasonality of births in the Bedouin population and possible explanations of these, the study of the relationship between infant feeding patterns and physical growth and morbidity during the first year of life, especially an attempt to see whether the observed stunting in lengths among these Bedouin children, characteristic of third world children, is related to infant feeding practices.
