TABLE 2

Percentage of Mothers Who Indicated That Specified Reasons Were Important in Their Decision to Stop Breastfeeding, According to Infants' Age at Weaning

Reasons Cited as Important	Infants' Age When Breastfeeding Was Completely Stopped, mo					Average
Reasons Cited as Important	<1	1–2	3–5	6–8	≥9	Average
Lactational factor
My baby had trouble sucking or latching on^a	53.7	27.1	11.0	2.6	1.5	19.2
My nipples were sore, cracked, or bleeding^a	36.8	23.2	7.2	5.7	4.2	15.4
My breasts were overfull or engorged^a	23.9	12.3	4.8	1.6	1.2	8.8
My breasts were infected or abscessed^a	8.1	5.7	3.1	3.1	3.1	4.6
My breasts leaked too much^a	14.1	8.0	3.8	1.6	1.9	5.9
Breastfeeding was too painful^a	29.3	15.8	3.4	3.7	4.2	11.3
Psychosocial factor
Breastfeeding was too tiring^a	19.8	17.2	11.0	7.8	5.3	12.2
Breastfeeding was too inconvenient^a	20.4	22.4	18.6	12.5	4.2	15.6
I wanted to be able to leave my baby for several hours at a time^a	11.2	24.1	18.2	15.6	7.3	15.3
I had too many household duties^a	12.6	14.0	9.6	5.2	3.8	9.0
I wanted or needed someone else to feed my baby^a	16.4	23.2	21.0	17.2	6.1	16.8
Someone else wanted to feed the baby^a	13.5	15.5	12.0	5.7	3.4	10.0
I did not want to breastfeed in public^a	14.9	18.6	15.1	4.7	4.6	11.6
Nutritional factor
Breast milk alone did not satisfy my baby	49.7	55.6	49.1	49.5	43.5	49.5
I thought that my baby was not gaining enough weight^a	23.0	18.3	11.0	14.1	8.4	15.0
A health professional said my baby was not gaining enough weight^a	19.8	15.2	8.6	9.9	5.0	11.7
I had trouble getting the milk flow to start^a	41.4	23.2	19.6	14.6	5.7	20.9
I didn't have enough milk^a	51.7	52.2	54.0	43.8	26.0	45.5
Lifestyle factor
I did not like breastfeeding^a	16.4	10.9	6.2	3.1	1.9	7.7
I wanted to go on a weight-loss diet	6.6	7.2	10.3	10.9	6.5	8.3
I wanted to go back to my usual diet	5.5	9.5	7.2	5.2	5.0	6.5
I wanted to smoke again or more than I did while breastfeeding^a	6.0	5.2	3.4	1.0	0.8	3.3
I wanted my body back to myself^a	8.9	13.2	16.8	18.8	15.7	14.7
Medical factor
My baby became sick and could not breastfeed^a	9.5	7.4	5.5	6.3	1.9	6.1
I was sick or had to take medicine^a	14.4	16.3	14.8	12.5	8.0	13.2
I was not present to feed my baby for reasons other than work	3.2	6.9	5.2	5.2	2.7	4.6
I became pregnant or wanted to become pregnant again^a	1.7	3.4	3.4	6.8	12.2	5.5
Milk-pumping factor
I could not or did not want to pump or breastfeed at work^a	11.2	22.4	21.3	13.5	4.6	14.6
Pumping milk no longer seemed worth the effort that it required^a	16.7	21.2	23.7	17.7	11.5	18.2
Infant's self-weaning factor
My baby began to bite^a	5.2	5.7	13.4	38.5	31.7	18.9
My baby lost interest in nursing or began to wean himself or herself^a	13.2	19.7	33.1	47.9	47.3	32.2
My baby was old enough that the difference between breast milk and formula no longer mattered^a	5.2	11.4	16.5	26.6	28.2	17.6

↵a P < .01 for association between each reason and weaning age after adjustments for maternal age, marital status, parity, education, poverty, WIC participation, race, and region.