maternal knowledge and practice in mashhad city about breast-feeding in first 6 -month of infant's life

introduction: breastfeeding is an important principle in pediatric health. it decreases their mortality and protect them fromm diseases in the first 6-month of life. this study aimed to determined maternal knowledge and practice in mashhad city about breast-feeding in first 6 -month of infant&apos;s life.   materials and methods: this analytic study was conducted on 105 mothers who had a child between 6 to 12 months,and selected by the cluster sampling and simple random, completed the knowledge and practic questionnaire who was made by researchers. information were analyzed by descriptive- analytical test (anowa,t-test,corelation) in spss software in version11.5.   results: this findings showed that 72/4% of infants have had exclusive until end of the first 6-month.  breast-feeding. average of maternal knowledge about exclusive breast-feeding was 19/818+4/545 of total score 28 and average of maternal practice was 7/106+2/338 of total score 12. status of growth infants at 4/8% was very good and in 42/9% was good. there was a significant relationship between maternal practice about breast-feeding and fathers&apos; education, number of children, status of growth (p<0.05(. there was a significant relationship between maternal knowledge about breast-feeding and area who lived there (p<0.05) and also there was a direct and positive correlation between maternal knowledg and practice (p=0.000, r=0.212). there was a significant relationship and reverse between maternal practice and age of mothers (p = 0.007, r = -0.266).   conclusion: maternal knowledge and practice about breast-feeding infants is moderate. planning is essential to target groups to promote breastfeeding in the first 6- month of infant&apos;s life.   keywords: knowledge, practice , exclusive,infant.