SUPPLEMENT ARTICLE Why Mothers Stop Breastfeeding: Mothers’ Self-reported Reasons for Stopping During the First Year

The authors have indicated they have no financial relationships relevant to this article to disclose. OBJECTIVES.Our goal was to determine why women stop breastfeeding at various times during their infant’s first year. METHODS.We analyzed self-reported data from 1323 mothers who participated in the Infant Feeding Practice Study II. Mail questionnaires were sent to mothers 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10 1⁄2, and 12 months after their child’s birth, in which they were asked to rate the importance of 32 reasons for their decision to stop breastfeeding. We applied exploratory factorial analysis to extract meaningful constructs of mothers ’ responses to the 32 reasons. We then compared the percentages of mothers who indicated that each reason was important in their decision to stop breastfeeding among various weaning ages and used multiple logistic regression models to examine sociodemo-graphic differences in the most frequently cited reasons for stopping breastfeeding. RESULTS. The perception that their infant was not satisfied by breast milk alone wa