INFANT- AND YOUNG CHILD-FEEDING PRACTICES IN MONGOLIA

Abstract

For almost all infants, breastfeeding remains the simplest, healthiest and least expensive feeding method that fulfils the infants’ needs. To assess the indicators of infant and young child feeding practices among 0- 23 months old children.This cross-sectional studies was conducted all 21 provinces of the 4 economic regions of the country and capital Ulaanbaatar city. A total of 350 children aged 0-23 months were selected from sampled households. In total, 350 children aged less than two years selected through revised 125-cluster sampling using of the indicators for assessing infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices were revised during the International Consensus Meeting organized be WHO in 2007.The proportions of infants with early initiation of breastfeeding (85.5%) and exclusive breastfeeding at the age of 4-5 months (46.7%) were low and infants who received foods from four and more groups is insufficient in Western and Eastern regions. Consumption of vegetables and fruits was also insufficient. Dairy products (milk, yogurt, cheese and other dairy products) were included in the diet of 75.6% (95%CI 69.2-81.0) of 6-23 month-old children during the previous day (p<0.003). The main problems revealed from the study were inappropriate complementary feeding practices. Our findings have highlighted the need to encourage mothers to enrich their traditional wheat- based complementary foods add more animal source foods and vegetables.