Breastfeeding, weaning practices and anthropometric status of children in Morogoro district, Tanzania

Abstract

A survey was conducted on 400 mother‐child pairs attending post‐natal Mother and Child Health (MCH) clinics in 17 centres in Morogoro district, Tanzania to investigate the breastfeeding and weaning practices and their influence on the nutritional status and growth patterns of children aged 0–2 years. Results of the study indicated that a large percent of mothers breatfeed their infants at birth. Forty percent of the mothers were found to breastfeed their infants within the first 3 hours while 71% breastfed within the first 12 hours post delivery. Small, insignificant (p < 0.05) variations were found between the mothers living in rural and urban areas of the district. Rooming‐in was practised by 80% of mothers in the rural areas compared to 77% of mothers in the urban communities. Ninety six percent of mothers in the rural communities breastfed their children on demand against 68% of their counterparts in the urban areas. Only 2% of rural mothers breastfed their children on schedule while in urban areas 32% of mothers breastfed on schedule. Baby girls were reported to be breastfed relatively longer than baby boys. Breastfeeding frequency was highest in the early days of lactation, with 74% and 55% of mothers in the rural and urban areas respectively breastfeeding 8 times during the day and 4 times in the night. For both rural and urban mothers, the frequency dropped to 5 times during the day and 2 times during the night after the sixth month. Lactation period was longer for children of rural mothers compared to their counterparts of urban mothers. Eighty six percent of mothers in the rural areas indicated an average lactation period of 22.2 months compared to the duration of 20.7 months for the majority (78%) of mothers in the urban communities. The average lactation period for the female children was longer than that of their male counterparts. Young mothers who generally had low parity had a shorter average lactation period compared to the older mothers. Mothers without or with primary education breastfed longer than their counterparts with higher education levels. Ninety three percent of urban mothers weaned their infants at the age of 3.5 months, while 89% of mothers in the rural areas weaned at a slightly older age of 4.5 months. Reasons for introducing weaning foods at various ages were given. The type of weaning foods including reasons for their selection were also investigated. The nutritional status of the children indicated that 40.5% and 37.5% of children in the rural and urban communities respectively were underweight (W/A < ‐2SD) while 2% of children in both rural and urban communities were wasted (W/H < ‐2SD). More children (13%) in the urban areas were stunted (H/A < ‐2SD) compared to their counterparts (10%) in the rural communities. In both communities, growth of children starts to falter at the age of 3.5–4 months, the time which the children are also weaned. Children in the urban grew better with significantly (p < 0.05) higher average weights compared to children of the same age in the rural communities. The data obtained in this study will serve as a baseline for planning and implementing future nutrition programmes aimed at promoting successful breastfeeding and improving the feeding practices of pre‐school children in the district.