Abstract
Complementary feeding is the systemic process of introduction of semisolid or solid food in infant at the right time in addition to mother’s milk in order to provide needed nutrition to the baby. A cross sectional study was conducted from January to December, 2020 to assess the level of knowledge and practice of nursing mothers regarding complementary feeding. Total 177 nursing mother were selected purposively and interviewed with a pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire. Face to face interview was conducted to collect data. P-value less than 0.05 were set as statistically significant. The knowledge and practice score were categorized into good (≥70%), satisfactory (50 to 70%), and poor (≤50%). Out of 177 respondents, majority 109(61.6%) had satisfactory knowledge regarding complementary feeding, 33(18.6%) had good knowledge and rest of them 35(19.8%) had poor knowledge regarding complementary feeding among the nursing mother. On the other hand 62.7% respondents had poor Practices, 24.9% had satisfactory practices and 12.4% had good practices regarding complementary feeding among the nursing mothers. There was highly significant association between knowledge and practice of complementary feeding (p <.000). Nursing mother’s knowledge regarding complementary feeding time was inadequate and practices were inappropriate. . It is the responsibility of health professionals to pass on the current information about proper infant feeding to mothers/care takers for promoting the healthy complementary feeding of the breastfeed child.
Highlights
Nutrition is a vital component of health promotion and disease prevention
Complementary feeding is the systemic process of introduction of semisolid or solid food in infant at the right time in addition to mother’s milk in order to provide needed nutrition to the baby
A cross sectional study was conducted from January to December, 2020 to assess the level of knowledge and practice of nursing mothers regarding complementary feeding
Summary
The major effects of under nutrition are believed to occur during the first 2 years of human life. This is because, at this stage, under nutrition causes irreversible damage to physical, mental, and social development of the child transcending into reduced intellectual potential at adulthood [1]. According to the WHO guidelines complementary feeding should be started at 6 months of age along with breast feeding up to 2 years or more (WHO, 2016 and WHO/UNICEF, 1998) Complementary feeding should be started when breast milk is no longer enough to meet the nutritional needs of the infant [2].The transition from exclusive breast feeding to semisolid food is a very vulnerable period because it is the time when malnutrition starts in many infants, contributing significantly to the high prevalence of malnutrition and infection in children less than five years of age worldwide [3].
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