Infant and Young Child Feeding Practices and Associated Factors in Benishangul Gumuz Regional State, North West, Ethiopia

Abstract

Introduction: In the world more than 10 million children die annually each year, in which 41% of these deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa. In Benishangul Gumuz Regional state the infant and under-five children mortality rate were the highest among all other regional state of Ethiopia with 101 and 169 respectively. Introduction of complementary food during infancy is an important area of pediatric health supervision due to its potential effects on life-long health. Objective: assessment timely introduction of complementary feeding practice and associated factors among mothers of children age less than two years. Methods: Both quantitative and qualitative community-based cross-sectional study were conducted in seven woreda of Benishangul Gumuz Regional state on 590 infant paired mothers less than two years using simple random sampling. Data was coded, edited, entered into EPi-Info version 3.5.1 and analyzed by using SPSS version 20.0. Both descriptive and multivariable logistic regressions were used for data analysis. Results: A total of 770 women were participated with a response rate of 97.7%. The prevalence of timely introduction of complementary feeding practice was 73.9% respectively. Being Male sex [AOR=1.48(1.00-2.18)], who fulfill minimum dietary diversity [AOR=2.87(1.34-6.13)], having adequate knowledge about timely introduction complementary feeding [AOR=2.61(1.20-5.61)], were independently associated with timely introduction of complementary feeding practice. Conclusion: Although the study revealed that majority of the mothers practice timely introduction of complementary feeding but some mothers started complementary feeding before 6 month. Optimized efforts for implementing the full IYCF especially on timely introduction of complementary feeding packages will be done through the front line workers. Factors associated with early initiation of complementary food should be taken into account while designing intervention strategies and in promotion of strong community based networks using Health Extension Workers key actors.