KNOWLEDGE AND PRACTICE OF MOTHERS ON INFANT AND CHILD FEEDING PRACTICES, HALABA TOWN, HALABA, SNNPR, ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Introduction : Lack of breast feeding and especially lack of exclusive breast feeding during the first 06 months of life are important risk factors for infant and childhood morbidity and mortality that are compounded by inappropriate complementary feeding.

Methodology: Health center based cross-sectional study was done from April 08-19, 2013 using the pretested data collecting tools in 344 under-three children at Halaba Health center, Halaba town. The aim was to generate data on knowledge and practice of mothers on infant and young child feeding.

Results: Our study revealed that, out of all respondents, 82.8% (285/344) had information about infant and child feeding practices. For most of them their source of information was health education (71.2%) followed by information from Television (25.9%) and Radio (23%). Considering their knowledge on exclusive breastfeeding 89% (306/344) of mothers had knowledge and 84% (289/344) of them exclusively breastfed their babies. Regarding complementary feeding practices, 255 (74.1%) of mothers having children aged 6-23 months have started complementary feeding at 6 month of post-delivery. Nearly about half of the respondents started with Cow’s milk (47.1%) followed by gruel (37.8%), Porridge (27.6%), formula milk (10.2%) and adult food (8.7%).

Conclusion: This data reflects that majority of the women had knowledge about infant and child feeding practices. In addition, it also reflects that most of the respondents practiced their knowledge of infant and child feeding though most of them started complimentary feeding with cow’s milk. Thus, improving health education on young child feeding will help to improve this practice.