Abstract
Breastfeeding practices of mother are effective way for reducing infant morbidity and mortality. Improper breastfeeding along with inadequate complementary feeding are the main reasons for malnutrition among the children in Bangladesh. Therefore, the aim of this study is to assess and find the breast feeding practice in selected areas of Dhaka city with respect to socio-economic and demographic condition. Here, 250 mothers and their 250 infants were considered to asses using a formative questionnaire. Within this sample size 129 (51.6%) were male infants and 121 (49.4%) were female infants respectively. This study found that the privilege of breast feeding practice progressively increases with the mother’s education that has been started from less than high school level (below 10 classes) to bachelor’s level or more than higher. In addition, this study found that about 84.8% lactating mothers have knowledge on what are colostrums. But surprisingly only 58% mothers gave colostrums to their infants. Furthermore, we found that the rate of exclusive breast feeding among three months and six months age infants were 51.2% and 27.2% respectively. Therefore, according to findings of this study it could be concluded that mothers in the Dhaka city should give more attention on breast feeding to her infants and subsequently prevent infant mortality and get a healthy child.
Highlights
Breastfeeding practice of infants is the feeding of babies but exclusive breastfeeding can be defined as a practice whereby the infants receive only breast milk and not even water, other liquids, tea, herbal preparations, or food during the first six months of life, with the exception of vitamins, mineral supplements, or medicines [1]
UNICEF and WHO recommend that children should exclusively breastfeed for the first six months of life and those children can be given solid and complementary food after over those period of time
It has been recognized worldwide that breastfeeding is beneficial for both the mother and child, as breast milk is considered the best source of nutrition for an infant [2]
Summary
Breastfeeding practice of infants is the feeding of babies but exclusive breastfeeding can be defined as a practice whereby the infants receive only breast milk and not even water, other liquids, tea, herbal preparations, or food during the first six months of life, with the exception of vitamins, mineral supplements, or medicines [1]. Exclusive breastfeeding is an ideal nutrition that supports optimal growth and development to infants for approximately first 6 months of age. Malnutrition is largely caused by poverty, ignorance, insufficient education and large family size. These factors influence most directly the quality of life and are the true determinants of malnutrition in society.
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