Infant Feeding Practices in Rural Field Practice Area of Medical College in Karnataka: A Cross-Sectional Descriptive Study
Keywords:
Infant nutrition, Exclusive Breastfeeding, Complementary feeds, weaning foods, IndiaAbstract
Background: Infant nutrition is a key factor for child survival, optim- al growth and development and breastfeeding improves immunity to prevent childhood illnesses. We aimed to estimate exclusive breast- feeding rates and assess complementary feeding practices among 9 months old infants.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out among mothers of infants coming for measles vaccination at three Primary Health Cen- tres from January to December, 2013. Trained medical interns inter- viewed the mothers about breastfeeding and feeding practices using a structured pretested questionnaire.
Results: Of the 4232 women, 954 children came for measles vaccina- tion. Majorities (94%) were fed with colostrum, and about 83% were initiated breastfeeding within an hour after delivery. Only about 34% were exclusively breastfed up to six months. A total of 602 infants (66%) were given herbal drops (janam ghutti), animal milk, formula feeds were introduced at various ages prior to 6 months and the main reason cited by the mothers was insufficient breast milk production.
Conclusions: Though feeding practices at birth were good, preva- lence of exclusive breastfeeding was low. Measures should be under- taken to improve exclusive breastfeeding. Mothers attending vaccina- tion clinics should be counselled about child feeding practices.
References
World Health Organization, UNICEF. Global strategy for infant and young child feeding. World Health Organiza- tion; 2003
Oddy WH, Peat JK. Breastfeeding, asthma, and atopic disease: an epidemiological review of the literature. J Hum Lact. 2003; 19(3):250-61; quiz 262-6.
Kalandan BF, Verhoeff FH, Brabin BJ. Breast and com- plementary feeding practices in relation to morbidity and growth in Malawian infants. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2006;60(3):401-7.
World Health Organization, Indicators for Assessing Infant and Young Child Feeding Practices. Conclusions of a consensus meeting held during 2007: Washington D.C., USA.
Jones G, Steketee RW, Black RE, Bhutta ZA, Morris SS; Bellagio Child Survival Study Group. How many child deaths can we prevent this year? Lancet. 2003; 362(9377):65-71.
Haider R, Islam A, Kabir I, Habte D. Early Complementa- ry feeding is associated with low nutritional status of young ifants recovering fromdirrhoea.J Trop Pediatr. 1996 (3):170-2.
Subba SH, Chandrashekhar TS, Binu VS, Joshi HS, Rana MS, Dixit SB. Infant feeding practices of mothers in an urban area in Nepal. Kathmandu Univ Med J (KUMJ). 2007(1):42-7.
Engebretsen IM, Wamani H, Karamagi C, Semiyaga N, Tumwine J, Tylleskär T. Low adherence to exclusive breastfeeding in Eastern Uganda: a community based cross-sentional studycomparing diretary recall since birth with 24- hour recall. BMC Pediatr. 2007;7:10.
Vaahtera M, Kulmala T, Hietanen A, Ndekha M, Cullinan T, Salin ML, Ashorn P. Breastfeeding and complementary feeding practices in rural Malawi. Acta Pae- diatr.2001(3):328-32.
Mihrshahi S, Ichikawa N, Shuaib M, Oddy W, Ampon R, Dibley MJ, Kabir AK, Peat JK. Prevalance of exclusive breastfeeding in Bangladesh and its association with di- arrhoea and acute respiratoryinfection: result of the mul- tiple indicator cluster survey 2003. J Health Popul Nutr. 2007(2):195-204.
Agostoni CE, Riva, M,Giovannini. Functional ingredients in the complementary feeding period and long-term ef- fects. Nestle Nutr Workshop Ser Pediatr Program, 2007. 60: p. 123-35; discussion 135-8.
He YN, Zhai F. [Complementary feeding practice in Chi- nese rural children]. Wei Sheng Yan Jiu. 2001(5):305-7.
International Institute for Population Sciences MI (2007) National family health survey (NFHS-3), 2005–06: India: volume I.IIPS.
Labbok MH. Breastfeeding: population-based perspec- tives. Pediatr Clin North Am. 2013;60(1):11-30.
Tiwari, R, Mahajan PC, Lahariya C, The Determinants of Exclusive Breast Feeding in Urban Slums: A Community Based Study.J Trop Pediatr. 2009; 55(1):49-54.
Chandrashekhar TS, Joshi HS, Binu V, Shankar PR, Rana MS, Ramachandran U. Breast-feeding initiation and de- terminants of exclusive breast-feeding - a questionnaire survey in an urbanpopulation of western Nepal. Public Health Nutr. 2007(2):192-7.
Banapurmath CR, Nagaraj MC, Banapurmath S, Kesaree
N. Breastfeeding practices in villages of central Karnata- ka. Indian Pediatr. 1996 (6):477-9.
Shaili V, Parul S, Kandpal S D, Jayanti S, Anurag S, Vipul
N. A Community Based Study on Breastfeeding Practices in a Rural Area of Uttarakhand. National Journal of Community Medicine. 2012; 3(2)283-287
Moffat T. Breastfeeding, wage labor, and insufficient milk in peri-urban Kathmandu, Nepal. Med Anthro- pol.2002(2):207-30.
Fjeld E, Siziya S, Katepa-Bwalya M, Kankasa C, Moland KM, Tylleskär T; PROMISE-EBF Study Group. 'No sister, the breast alone is not enough for my baby' a qualitative assessment of potentials and barriers in the promotion of exclusive breastfeeding in southern Zambia. Int Breast- feed J. 2008;3:26.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
The authors retain the copyright of their article, with first publication rights granted to Medsci Publications.
