Exclusive Breastfeeding:The Importance of Infant Growth and Development

Breast milk is the best nutrient for infant especially for the newborn. Nutrition in breast milk has benefits for improving infant’s growth and development. The infant are expected to be the successor of the nation that has competitiveness and high productivity by getting the best nutrition in the breastmilk. This research aims to determine the relationship of breastfeeding with infant’s growth and development in Sudiang Raya District Makassar City. This research is an analytic with cross sectional study design. The population were all the infant aged 6-12 months in Sudiang Raya distric as many as 192 infants. Total sample were 78 infant. The results showed that the exclusive breast feeding was high (66,7%) compared to the non-exclusive breast feeding (33,3%). Based on data analysis found that there were a significant relationship between breastfeeding and infant’s growth based on BB/U index with ρ: 0,000, PB/U index with ρ: 0,001 and BB/ PB index with ρ: 0,010. There were also a significant relationship between breastfeeding and infant’s development with ρ: 0,000. Giving breast milk to the infant can increase growth and development so that it can improve their health status.