Background: Breast milk is the best food for infants because it provides the baby with basic nutritional needs.

  Objective : To determine the factors affecting the use of artificial milk in children under one year referred to artificial milk commissions.

  Methods: This was a cross-sectional study performed on 186 infants under one year who were referred to artificial milk committee in Aran-Bidgol County (Kashan, Iran) in 2009. Data were collected using a questionnaire with 43 questions over demographic information associated with mother and infant, start of feeding, infant’s health and behavior, type of pregnancy and birth, mother ’ s condition and family planning, start of feeding, and history of previous lactation. Data were analyzed by chi square test.

  Findings: The most frequent causes for use of artificial milk were slow growth (51.1%), multiple birth (14.5%), doctor’s recommendation (10.8%), infant’s inability to breastfeed (10.2%), infant ’ s illness (5.9%), mother ’ s illness (4.8%), adoption (2.2%), and parents’ separation (0.5%). There was a statistically significant relationship between lactation and type of delivery, mother ’ s motivation, need for after-delivery care, baby-friendly maternity unit, and use of pacifier (P<0.05). No significant relationship between breastfeeding and mother’s drug use, infant’s illness, mother’s employment, mother’s education, and mother ’ s breast condition was found.

  Conclusion : According to our findings, it seems that training and encouraging pregnant mothers for natural delivery and breastfeeding, and also establishing higher numbers of baby-friendly maternity hospitals can lead to considerable decrease in use of artificial milk.