Abstract
IntroductionSeveral studies have been done on infant feeding practices but few have focused on twins. The aim of this study was to compare the complementary feeding practices between mothers with twins and mothers with singletons.MethodsMother-infant pairs (50 mother-twin pairs and 50 mother-singleton pairs) with children aged 6 to 23 months were recruited from two public health clinics and communities in Tema and Ashaiman. Information was collected on the background characteristics of the mothers. Recumbent length and weight of the children were measured. Dietary information on the infants was collected using 24 hour recall. The differences between two groups were tested using independent t-student test for continuous variables and chi-square test for categorical variables.ResultsThe minimum dietary diversity (4+ food groups) was met by only 32% of the twins and 40% of the singletons, and 28% of the twins and 38% of the singletons met the requirement for minimum acceptable diet (minimum dietary diversity and the minimum meal frequency). Minimum meal frequency was met by 78% of the twins and 76% of the singletons. There were no significant differences between the two groups of infants. Prevalence of undernutrition was not significantly different among the two groups (twins versus singletons: underweight-26% versus 24%, stunting-20% versus 24% and wasting-14% versus 10%.ConclusionComplementary feeding practices were suboptimal in both groups of mothers requiring interventions to improve infant feeding practices.
Highlights
Several studies have been done on infant feeding practices but few have focused on twins
The minimum dietary diversity (4+ food groups) was met by 32% twins and 40% singletons, while 78% twins and 76% singletons had the minimum meal frequency and 28% twins and 38% singletons met the criteria for minimum acceptable diet
The results from our study showed that the foods consumed by both twins and singletons were largely from the grains, roots and tubers food group (95%) and rather low in animal source food group (62%), vitamin A rich food group (48%) and the fruits and vegetables food group (20%)
Summary
Several studies have been done on infant feeding practices but few have focused on twins. The aim of this study was to compare the complementary feeding practices between mothers with twins and mothers with singletons. Nutrition during the first 1,000 days of a child's life can determine the difference between a promising future or one that is plagued with poor health and growth faltering. This period "window of opportunity" indirectly shapes the future of families, communities and the stability and prosperity of the global world [1]. To meet the evolving nutritional needs, infants should receive timely nutritionally adequate meals with regards to quality and safety of complementary foods at the end of six months with continued breast feeding for at least 2 years of age [5,6]. The findings from the previous study [9] prompted this current study which compared the complementary feeding practices of mothers with twins against mothers with singletons
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