Household food security influences feeding practices of Bangladeshi infants

Abstract

We studied 843 infants who were born between May 2002 and June 2003 in Maternal and Infant Nutrition Intervention in Matlab study to investigate the effect of household food security (HHFS) on infant feeding (IF) practices in rural Bangladesh. HHFS data were obtained from pregnant women and used as an 11-item scale. Data on IF practices were collected monthly until infants were 12 mo old. We created scales at 3, 6, 9 and 12 mo for IF practices by comparing observed IF practices to current IF recommendations. We examined the association of HHFS with IF practice using lagged, dynamic and difference models of longitudinal data analysis (adjusted for various infant and maternal variables). We used Cox proportional hazards models to examine whether HHFS influenced duration of breastfeeding and time of introduction of complementary foods (CF). HHFS was negatively associated with IF practices at 3–6 mo but positively associated at 6–9 and 9–12 mo of age in all 3 models. Although HHFS was not associated with duration of breastfeeding or the time of introduction of CF, it was associated with the type of CF given to infants. In particular, mothers in food-secure households were not meeting current IF recommendations when their babies were 3–6 mo old. In contrast, mothers in food-insecure households were not meeting IF recommendations when their babies were 6–12 mo old. Thus, efforts to support proper IF practices should be focused on mothers in food-secure households when their babies are 3–6 mo old and also on mothers in food-insecure households during second half of infancy. (KKS was supported by a Fogarty-NIH Training Grant (5 D43 TW001271) to KMR; data collection was supported by UNICEF).