A Study on infant and young children feeding practices among mothers in Thirumazhisai, Chennai, Tamil Nadu

Abstract

In the world, under-nutrition accounts for a large scale of infant and child mortality, one of the causes being suboptimal breastfeeding and complementary feeding. It is important that adequate nutrition have to be provided during the period of first and second year of life to prevent impaired developmental milestones and malnutrition, since it is very common in India. The main aim of this study is to assess the knowledge and feeding practices among mothers of infants and children aged between 6 and 23 months. A cross-sectional study was conducted using a pre-tested structured questionnaire, which was developed based on (Infant and Young Children Feeding practices) IYCF, on 101 mothers of infants and children aged between 6 and 23 months in Thirumazhisai, Chennai. Among the 101 mothers interviewed, 93% of them had knowledge of early initiation of breastfeeding, but only 87.1% of the children were given breastfeeding within 1 hour of birth and exclusive breastfeeding practices were followed in 94% of the mothers. Statistical significant association was found between Exclusive breastfeeding and age < 25 years, socio-economic status and education. The prevalence of pre-lacteal feeding was 13.9%. Though there is adequate knowledge and feeding practices followed, further research is needed to quantify the gaps among the knowledge and practice of feeding practices among the study population.