Abstract
Childhood malnutrition is high in Sub‐Saharan Africa. Knowing caregivers’ opinions about feeding children may aid in designing effective nutrition interventions. Data on caregiver feeding opinions, and diets of 2‐ to 5‐y‐old children were collected from 608 caregivers living in three ecological zones (EZ) of Ghana. This analysis compared caregivers’ feeding opinions across three ecological zones. About 27.8% of caregivers believed that their children needed to be fed only 2 to 3 times/d. Reasons for adult supervision during child meal times, feeding diverse foods, and prioritizing a child to receive animal source foods (ASF), and the perceived child benefits of ASF differed across EZ (P<0.001). Caregivers’ opinions in agreement with recommended child feeding practices were scored as good opinion otherwise their opinion scored as poor. Children of caregivers with good feeding opinion scores consumed more diverse ASF compared to those of caregivers with poor opinions (5.0 ± 2.1 vs. 4.6 ± 2.1; P=0.026). Age and education of caregivers positively predicted better feeding opinions (P<0.01); living in the Guinea Savannah ecological zone was associated with poor feeding opinions. A key component to improving child nutrition is to understand the opinions held by caregivers in order to address them adequately within the specific locale of the caregiver and child. Support: GL‐CRSP, funded in part by US‐AID, PCE‐G‐00–98
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