Effect of Home-based Family Counselling to the Mothers’ and Caregivers’ Knowledge and Practices on Infant and Young Child Feeding in Selected Rural Villages in Leyte, Philippines

Abstract

Infant and young child feeding practices are affected by the knowledge of mothers and caregivers. We determined the effect of home-based family counselling on the knowledge and practices of mothers and caregivers relative to infant and young child feeding. Participants included 22 and 21 mothers and caregivers in the intervention and control groups, respectively with 6-15 month-old children categorized as severely underweight and underweight based on World Health Organization (WHO) child growth standard. The intervention group received counselling by the trained village-based health care providers on WHO-recommended complementary feeding messages. We determined the knowledge of breastfeeding mothers and caregivers on complementary feeding by summing up the correct responses on a knowledge test based on the 10 guidelines on complementary feeding. For infant and young child feeding practices, we used a revised standard questionnaire to suit to local condition. We obtained the dietary diversity and meal frequency using the 24-hour food recall for a typical diet of the child for two rounds (before and after intervention). At baseline, the control and intervention groups were comparable in terms of socio-demographic characteristics and knowledge level on complementary feeding. At endline, mothers and caregivers’ knowledge level on infant and young child feeding was higher in the intervention group. Significantly higher effects were observed in the intervention group in terms of the proportions of ever breastfed 12-24 month-old children meeting the minimum dietary diversity, minimum meal frequency, and minimum diet acceptability. This study provides evidence that home-based counselling positively influenced the knowledge and practice of mothers on infant and young child feeding.