Abstract
Background: The benefits of adherence to optimal infant and young child feeding (IYCF) to both the mothers and their infants below two years are well documented. However, compliance to optimal IYCF practices has been noted to vary in different settings. This study sought to establish factors influencing mothers’ adherence to optimal infant and young child feeding practices for babies below two years in Mpigi town council- Mpigi District. Methods: The study was a cross-sectional study carried out among 264 mothers of babies between six months to two years of age attending postnatal care units of health facilities in Mpigi town council, Uganda: Mpigi Health Center (HC) IV and Kyaali HC III. Purposive sampling method was used to select the health centers while simple random sampling was then used to select the sample from the selected centers. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data. Data entry and analysis was performed using SPSS version 16. Results: 264 participants were invited to participate in the study, 100% of these fully completed the survey. The majority of the mothers were aged 20 to 34 years (80.3%). After scoring each participant using the four characteristics which included: initiation of breastfeeding within the first hour following birth, exclusive breastfeeding up to 6 months followed by continued breastfeeding with appropriate complementary foods upto 2 years and beyond, the majority of the participants were adherent (79.6%) to IYCF practices while 20.4% were non adherent to IYCF practices. Conclusion: A good estimate of adherence to optimal IYCF practices was revealed in this study. Sustaining well-established policies to support IYCF programmes is recommended to maintain optimal IYCF practices.
Highlights
Optimal Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) is crucial for survival across the entire childhood continuum
Keywords Adherence, Mothers, Infant and Young Child Feeding, Uganda, Africa, Low and Middle-Income countries article can be found at the end of the article
The most common level of education attained by the mothers was primary education
Summary
Keywords Adherence, Mothers, Infant and Young Child Feeding, Uganda, Africa, Low and Middle-Income countries article can be found at the end of the article. Author roles: Nabirye Z: Conceptualization, Data Curation, Investigation, Methodology, Project Administration, Writing – Original Draft Preparation, Writing – Review & Editing; Kiwanuka F: Conceptualization, Data Curation, Formal Analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Project Administration, Writing – Original Draft Preparation, Writing – Review & Editing; Nakaye Z: Validation, Writing – Original Draft Preparation, Writing – Review & Editing; Kamurasi I: Methodology, Writing – Original Draft Preparation, Writing – Review & Editing; Tolulope AA: Methodology, Writing – Original Draft Preparation, Writing – Review & Editing.
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