Abstract
Introduction: Malnutrition has been identified as one of the principal causes limiting India’s globaleconomic potential. The infant and young child-feeding practices determine the nutritional status,growth and ultimately the survival of infants and young children. The study aimed to assess theknowledge, attitude and practices of rural mothers with children diagnosed with severe acutemalnutrition (SAM) regarding infant feeding. Methodology: A hospital-based cross-sectionaldescriptive study on 116 mothers from the rural area of Northern India with children diagnosed withSAM. Assessment of knowledge, attitude and practice of mothers regarding infant feeding was donethrough face to face interviews using a structured questionnaire containing 32 questions. Results:The mean age of admitted children was 14.48 ± 4.71 months. The majority of mothers (81.9%)studied till only primary school or were illiterate. The appropriate knowledge about early initiation ofbreastfeeding and the ideal time to start complementary feeding was found in 42.4% and 45.6% ofmothers respectively which was suboptimal. The attitude towards ideal breastfeeding practices waspositive in most mothers. However in practice only 59.4% of mothers exclusively breastfed theirbabies till 6 months and 54.3% delayed initiation of complementary feed beyond 9 months of age.The frequency of complementary feeding was inadequate in the 6-8 months age group as stated by88.6% of mothers and minimum dietary diversity was not followed by 68.1% of mothers.Conclusion: The knowledge and positive attitude towards infant feeding are not applied in practiceby mothers. Efforts should be made to improve knowledge, attitude and practice with an emphasison complementary feeding indicators to reduce the burden of malnutrition in the rural population.67
Highlights
Malnutrition has been identified as one of the principal causes limiting India’s global economic potential
Only 49 (42.2 %) mothers knew the duration of exclusive breastfeeding till 6 months and only 25 (21.6 %) knew that breastfeeding should be continued till 2 years. 60 (51.7%) mothers did not know that frequent breastfeeding increases milk production and 43.1% had no knowledge of the dangers of bottle feeding
Exclusive breastfeeding is recommended for the first six months of life which in turn leads to a reduction of early infant morbidity and mortality [8]
Summary
Malnutrition has been identified as one of the principal causes limiting India’s global economic potential. The study aimed to assess the knowledge, attitude and practices of rural mothers with children diagnosed with severe acute malnutrition (SAM) regarding infant feeding. In practice only 59.4% of mothers exclusively breastfed their babies till 6 months and 54.3% delayed initiation of complementary feed beyond 9 months of age. Efforts should be made to improve knowledge, attitude and practice with an emphasis on complementary feeding indicators to reduce the burden of malnutrition in the rural population.. Optimal feeding practices during infancy and early childhood, comprising of early initiation of breastfeeding, exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months of life, continued breastfeeding through age 2 years, timely introduction of complementary foods, diversity of diet and frequency are critical for child survival, healthy growth and development of children under two years of age [4]. The first 1000 days of life is the most important period to intervene to prevent the lifelong damage caused by malnutrition [5]
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