Alimentation du nouveau-ne et du nourrisson dans la region centrale du togo : pratiques familiales et communautaires avant la mise en oeuvre de la strategie « prise en charge integree des maladies de l’enfant »

Abstract

Aim: To assess neonate and infant feeding in the central region of Togo.Methods : Set out from 29th March to 8th April 2004, in that region, the cross-sectional study concerned a random sample of 983 households, 506 caretakers and 733 under-five children. Through Epi-info and SPSS softwares, we studied mainly breastfeeding, breast milk substitutes and weaning practices.Results: Out of the 733 children, 52% were males and 48% females, 27% less than one year and 21.6% between 12 and 23 months. After delivery, 29.3% of infants were breastfed within one hour, and 75.6%within the first 24 hours. Children got colostrum in only 78.4% of the cases. We noted insufficient breast milk flow in 53.1% of the mothers and water, the main substitute given to 21% of the children. Until 6 months, 57.7% of the children were exclusively breastfed. Only 9.5% of the infants were breastfed until 23rd month. Complementary foods were averagely introduced at 6 months for water, pap, “Diuri” (a plant decoction), and 11 months for other family foods. At 18 to 30 months, 65% of mothers stopped breastfeeding, because of pregnancy (7%), insufficient breast milk flow (6%), professional constraints (3%) and death (3%).Conclusion: The study revealed us cultural practices that do not support optimal infant and young children feeding upon which, ssustained efforts have to be made on the sensitization of mothers during CIMCI implementation.