Original theme: Problem of exclusive breastfeeding in the town of Kélo, province of Tandjile (Chad)

With the aim of evaluating the problem of breastfeeding (AME) exclusive of breast milk during the first 6 months of life, a prospective cross-sectional study was spread over a period of three months from May 10 to August 10. 2023. It involved 550 people, including 500 breastfeeding mothers of children aged 0 to 6 months and 50 health personnel. The study or investigation took place in five neighborhoods of the city of Kélo and in five urban health centers of the said city. The pre-established questionnaire sheets made it possible to collect the necessary data which were entered and analyzed using the SPSS version 25 software. The Pearson Chi-2 test was used at a threshold of 0.05 to investigate the relationship between the dependent variables and independent variables. he results showed that the average age of mothers is 32.50 and that of health personnel is 35.50. Married women number 474 or 94.8%, 49.40% are educated at the secondary level followed by 39.60% at the primary level. Almost all breastfeeding mothers are housewives, i.e. 65.80%. The proportions of mothers who practiced non-exclusive breastfeeding are 96.60% compared to 3.40% who practiced exclusive breastfeeding. Also a good proportion of mothers (26.40%) breastfed immediately after childbirth and the majority of these mothers breastfeed their children on demand (77.20%). Herbal tea and water were the main foods introduced into the infant's diet before the age of 6 months. Finally, our results showed that there is a relationship between exclusive breastfeeding and factors such as the mother's profession, the place of delivery, the sex of the child, advice on AME, knowledge of the advantages of AME and the practice of AME immediately after delivery. Knowledge of the advantages of AME must be made more available to mothers in order to improve the health of newborns and even children.