It appears that Romanian mothers' birth years were 71% between 1970–1990, 17% between 1950–1969, and 12% after 1990. Among German mothers, 50% were born between 1970–1990, 24% between 1950–1969, and 24% were born after 1990. Between 1930 and 1949, 2% of the women were born. This distribution of birth years among mothers is illustrated in Fig. 1.
It appears that 79% of Romanian women come from urban areas, while 21% grew up in rural areas. 52% of the German participants grew up in a rural area, while 48% stated that they had grown up in an urban area. This is illustrated in Fig. 2.
It appears that concerning the educational level, 81% of Romanian mothers have a university degree, 17% of them graduated from high school, and 2% of women do not have educational qualifications. With a university degree, 60% of German women have a university degree. (I do not understand) 12% received the higher education entrance qualification, and 28% have a secondary school leaving certificate. 48% of Romanian mothers have two children, 44% have one child, 6% have three children, and 2% have four children. This makes a total of 80 Romanian children. Born between 2000–2020, 68% of Romanian children, 16% were born between 1980–1999, 15% were born after 2020, and 1% were born between 1960–1979. Half of the German participating mothers have a single child, 34% have two children, and 16% have three children. It makes a total of 83 German children. 35% of German children were born between 2000 and 2020, and 33% between 1980 and 1999. After the year 2000, 15%were born, and between the years 1960–1979, 7% of German children were born. Figure 3 shows the distribution of the children's birth years.
It appears that all 48 Romanian participants said that breastfeeding was important. Among the German mothers, 96% had a favourable opinion towards the importance of breastfeeding, and 4% stated it would not be necessary, as seen in Fig. 4.
It appears that the opinion towards the benefit of breastfeeding for the child is deemed by 94% of all Romanian mothers, while 6% do not think their child can benefit from it. The German mothers stated that breastfeeding benefits with 96%, while 4% considered it non-beneficial, as seen in Fig. 5.
It appears that of those Romanian women who stated breastfeeding as non-beneficial, 12,5% were born between 1950–1969, and 6% were born between 1970–1990. Among the German mothers who consider breastfeeding not as beneficial, 8% were born between 1950–1969 and between 1970–1990. All Romanian and German mothers born after 1990 indicated the importance and the benefit of breastfeeding. Doctors' information was given to 52% of Romanian mothers, while 29% did not receive information about breastfeeding from their doctors. 19% of Romanian women indicated that the information needed more. The doctors' information needed to be sufficiently stated by 14% of German women, 48% indicated they would have received enough information, and 38% revealed they did not receive information about breastfeeding from their doctors. The distribution of information given by doctors is shown in Fig. 6.
It appears that among the Romanian mothers born between 1950–1969, 12.5% said the information about breastfeeding was not given or not sufficiently. Of those born between 1970–1990, 29% were not provided with information, and 24% needed more. Half of the women born after 1990 said there was no information given. Regarding the German mothers born between 1950–1969, 42% of women declared that their doctors had not informed them. In the age group of 1970–1990, 32% did not receive medical information, and among the German women born after 1990, 50% stated that no information was given from their doctors. Figure 7 shows the percentage of women who received no or insufficient information from their doctors about breastfeeding according to their birth years.
It appears that of 80 Romanian children, 99% are breastfed. One mother stated she could not breastfeed her first child, which was not a conscious decision. The following results were obtained regarding how long the children were breastfed. 20% of children were breastfed for three months, 16% for six months, 14% for nine months, 13% for twelve months, and 32% for more than twelve months. Mothers of 5% of children are still breastfeeding. Of the 50 German mothers, 96% did breastfeed all their children. Two women did not breastfeed at all, of which one mother consciously decided not to breastfeed. Therefore, out of 83 German children, 78 were breastfed, representing 94%. Of those 78 children, 13% were breastfed for three months, 17% for six months, 28% for nine months, 14% for twelve months, and 17% for more than twelve months. Infants that are still breastfed correspond to 11%. Figure 8 shows the distribution of the duration of breastfeeding between Romanian and German mothers.
It appears that solid food was introduced in 39% of children between the 3rd and 5th months and 60% between the 6th and 9th months. From the Romanian mothers, no one started additional feeding after nine months. One child still needs to receive other nutrition. For 25% of the German infants, other food was introduced between the 3rd and 5th months, 65% were fed with solid food starting between the 6th and 9th months, and 10% of children received complementary food after nine months or later. This is shown in Fig. 9.
It appears that 60% of Romanian children and 75% of German infants were exclusively breastfed for at least the first six months of life. The percentage of exclusively breastfed children for six months is illustrated in Fig. 10.
It appears that respiratory infections up to the age of 16 never appeared in 13% of children, 31% rarely had infections, 45% had them sometimes, and 11% were often associated with respiratory tract infections. The frequency of respiratory infections resulted in 22% of children never having it, 42% rarely, 28% sometimes, and 8% often having respiratory infections. The distribution of respiratory infections is shown in Fig. 11.
It appears that of the Romanian children, 20% have allergies, and 14.5% are German children, as seen in Fig. 12.
It appears that pollen allergy is present in 20% of Romanian children, as well as allergy to cat hair. 15% of children have allergic rhinitis. Food allergies, such as almonds or fish, and allergies to egg whites are seen in 10% of Romanian cases. Allergy against cow's milk protein, food additives, insect bites, and mites are found in 5% of children. Among the German children with known allergies, 42% have hay fever, and 17% react allergically to nuts. Gluten intolerance, lactose intolerance, cow’s milk protein allergy, kiwi allergy, and tomato allergy are present at 8% each. Asthma is present in 25% of Romanian children and 2.5% of German children, shown in Fig. 13. No Romanian nor German child presents diabetes mellitus.
It appears that atopic dermatitis is noticed in 37.5% of Romanian children and 14.5% of German children. Figure 14 illustrates the incidence of atopic dermatitis in both groups of children.