A study on feeding practices of mothers of infants and young children

Abstract

Proper feeding practices of infants and young children surrounding breastfeeding by mothers, weaning, introduction of complementary as well as supplementary food is critical in the child’s overall growth, development and health including nutrition. It otherwise leads to malnutrition (undernutrition or obesity). This study was a cross sectional study conducted in Shillong (North East India) and Coimbatore (Southern India). Both cities being diverse in culture, demography, resources and knowledge of feeding practices among mothers of infants and young children provides it a statistical edge over previous research conducted on the topic. Purposive sampling method was used to select 15 young mothers in each of the two regions. Demographic Profile as well as Feeding Practices Monitoring Tool were used to collect the data which was carefully analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences. Findings suggest that nearly half of the mothers were not practicing appropriate complementary feeding, half of them only breastfed their children without proper introduction to weaning making it necessary to create awareness among them on breast feeding and proper age of weaning and introduction of complementary food.