Summary:
When breast milk is no longer enough to meet the nutritional
needs of infants, complementary foods should be added to
their diet. It is a very vulnerable period when malnutrition
starts in many infants, contributing significantly to high
prevalence of malnutrition in under-5 children world-wide.
In Bangladesh, complementary feeding (CF) practices are
not satisfactory. The objectives of the study were to look into
the feeding patterns of under-2 children and to identify the
causes which lead mothers/ caregivers to practice
inappropriate CF. This cross-sectional study was done in the
Pediatric department of Sir Salimullah Medical College
Mitford Hospital, Dhaka and in a private chamber from a
district town of Bangladesh from October, 2011 to December,
2011. Four hundred mother-child pairs were enrolled by
non-random convenience sampling. Different aspects of
feeding practices (age of initiation of CF, type of first
complementary food, current main complementary food &
its quantity, and frequency of CF) were analyzed. Bottle
feeding, fast foods and lack of proper family support were
most important barriers (p<0.05). High rate of early initiation
of CF was mainly due to mothers’ perception that breast milk
alone was not enough (81.8%) and main cause of late
initiation was refusal of complementary foods by their babies
(48.4%). Feeding practices were mainly influenced by
relatives (25%), qualified doctors (15.3%), neighbors
(14.5%) & mother-in-laws (13.5%). CF practices are still
far from ideal. Strengthening of nutrition education to
mothers/caregivers and family members/relatives along with
awareness building in the community may change the wrong
practices.
Key words: Barriers, Complementary feeding
(J Banagladesh Coll Phys Surg 2015; 33: 195-201)