Infant And Young Child Feeding Practices Among Mothers Of Children Aged 0 -23 Months in Rural Areas of Quetta

Abstract

Background. Infant and young child feeding practices in the initial 0-23months of life are very important for physical and cognitive growth of children. poor infant and young child feeding practices have a major contribution in higher stunting and wasting rate in many parts of world. Baluchistan unfortunately has a higher stunting and wasting rate, it is therefore necessary to know the infant and young child feeding practices in this territory. Objectives. The aim of this study was to assess the infant and young child feeding practices among the mothers of children aged 0-23months in the rural areas of Quetta, and to find out the determinant of infant and young child feeding practices in these areas. Methodology: This is a cross-sectional study which was carried out in rural areas of Quetta Baluchistan Pakistan. A total of 265 dyad of mother and children participated who were residents of those six villages which were randomly selected from the rural areas of Quetta. Frequencies and percentages were found out for descriptive statistics while chi square test of association was applied to determine any association in variables. Results Age of 27.5% of the children in the study population was between 0-6 months, 38.6% were between 6-11 months, and 34% the children were between 12-23 months age. About 56% of the study participants were males, and 44% were females. About 75% of study participants (n=280) were breastfed, and the remaining 25% were never breastfed. About 33% of the breastfed children (n=211) started breastfeeding within the first hour of life. Only 53.2% of the breastfed infants were predominantly fed exclusively with breast milk. 61.1% of the infants between 6-11 months of age were being fed according to age-appropriate breastfeeding. 42.6% of these infants were not consuming soft/semisolid/solid food. 68.5% of these infants were not consuming any meat or eggs. Similarly, 82.4% of infants were not consuming any vegetables and 88% of infants were not consuming any fruits. Only 35.2% of iii these infants fulfilled the criteria of minimum meal frequency (MMF), only 15.7% of the infants fulfilled the criteria of minimum dietary diversity (MDD), and 14.8% of the infants fulfilled the criteria for minimum acceptable diet (MAD). At the time of the study, 33.9% of children were between 12-23 months of age. 65.3% of these young children were breastfed since birth. At the time of the study, 47.4% of children were still being fed breast milk. 46.3% of the children were being fed according to age-appropriate breastfeeding. 86.3% of these children were consuming soft/semisolid/solid food. 52.6% of these children were not consuming any meat or eggs. Similarly, 62.1% of children were not consuming any vegetables and 83.2% of children were not consuming any fruits. 72.6% of these children fulfilled the criteria of MMF, only 21.1% of the children fulfilled the criteria of MDD, and 21.1% of the infants fulfilled the criteria for MAD. Binary logistic regression analysis showed that predominant breastfeeding was affected by the mother’s education level, mode of delivery, and comorbidities of the mother (p<0.005) when adjusted with gender. Binary logistic regression analysis also showed that MAD and MDD in the 6-11 months old group were affected by the mother’s education level, but MMF was affected by the father’s occupation and monthly income. Analysis showed that model including MAD as the dependent variable in the 12-23 months old group was statistically significant (p<0.001) Chi-square showed that government job of father, better income level, better maternal education level, and mother’s job were also found to provide a better MAD. Mother’s work status was found to affect MDD positively. Lower maternal education was related to better achievement of MMF. Conclusion. This study concluded that in the study population infant and young child feeding were poor, furthermore mother education level, father occupation, mode of child delivery, comorbidities of mother, mother work status and monthly income are the determinant of IYCF