TITLE:
Assessment of Infant and Young Child Feeding Practices of Caregiver’s in Jashore City, Bangladesh
AUTHORS:
Afroza Sharmin, Niaz Mahmud, Md. Jannatul Ferdaus, M. N. A. Siddiqui, Md. Sidur Rahman, Mahbubur Alam Dewan, Tanvir Ahmad
KEYWORDS:
Breastfeeding, Complementary Feeding, Infant and Young Child, Caregivers
JOURNAL NAME:
Food and Nutrition Sciences,
Vol.11 No.3,
March
17,
2020
ABSTRACT: Since infant and young child feeding practices play an important role in
ameliorating childhood nutrition, an exploratory and descriptive study has thus
been conducted employing a previously developed questionnaire at Ad-din shisu
Hospital, Jashore, Bangladesh to obtain better insights about the breastfeeding
and complementary feeding practices among infant and young child feeding
caregivers. Out of 260 babies, 54% were female and 46% were male. Nearly all
caregivers were found having the idea that breast milk is the best food for
newborn babies. Around 81.9% of caregivers think that breast milk contains all
the nutrients the baby needs to flourish, but in case of protection from
disease, only 18.1% of caregivers think that it protects the baby from certain
diseases. Around 46.9% mothers practiced early initiation of breastfeeding and
they offered breast milk to their newborn right away (within one hour) after
delivery, 53.5% lactating mothers had proper knowledge about breastfeeding
methods, 39.6% mothers never practiced burping after breastfeeding, 66.4%
mothers had normal delivery, 33.6% mothers had caesarian section, 99% mothers
offered colostrums to their babies and only 1% of them didn’t give the
colostrums. Besides, 88.8% continued breastfeeding up to 24 months or more
along with 83.8% caregivers starting complementary feeding from six months,
55.4% caregivers said baby’s immune system is less developed, so they get
attacked by infection easily and 44.6% caregivers said “their tummies are vulnerable to infection”, and 48.8% of the
caregivers followed the type of hygiene required. Our findings revealed
information on the knowledge, attitude, and practices of the caregiver’s
towards breastfeeding and complementary feeding.