Breast feeding, complementary feeding, and weaning practices, among children up to 2 years old in Gaza strip

The experience of die authors working with mothers in Gaza community in the of child and infant nutrition and their observation of incorrect weaning behavior, necessitated assessment of weaning practices for future intervention. The objectives of this study is to describe infant feeding attitudes and practices during breastfeeding [BF], complementary feeding [CF] and weaning [WP] for a sample of nursing mothers in the Gaza strip [GS] during the year 2009. The study is of cross-sectional design. The study sample consisted of 269 mothers of infants aged less than two years old Data were collected through face to face interviews of the mothers. The questionnaire contained questions related to infant feeding and weaning attitudes and practices of mothers towards their infants. Chi-square test was used to analyze data and P value less than 0.05 was considered significant. Ethical approval was obtained verbally from each participant. In the present study 518% of infants were boys and 44.2% girls [Minimum age 1 month and maximum age 24 month]. The study revealed that 48.8% of the mothers weaned their children either suddenly or gradually. Complementary feeding was added between 3-5 months to 54.9% of the children that started to receive complementary feeding [post breast feeding]. The key limitation of this study was that the research team collected limited samples from all the five regions of Gaza Strip due to limited human and non-human resources. Satiety from complementary feeding was the prime cause for weaning followed by pregnancy of the nursing mother and then by breast refusal by the baby. The study showed lack of adequate knowledge by nursing mothers towards the procedure, practice and time of weaning and the importance of breast feeding. We recommend use of health education to assess and support the proper feeding practices amongst nursing mothers

Prevalence of malnutrition and intestinal parasites among preschool children in the Gaza strip

Helminthiasis is one of the public health problems worldwide. This is especially true in Gaza Strip. This study demonstrated the parasites prevalent among mal-nutritional preschool-children according to the anthropometric cutoff points [WHO, 2007] and their family socio-demographic variability

Mother knowledge, attitudes, perception regarding intestinal parasites and diarrhoea in three regions of Gaza strip, Palestine

The knowledge, attitudes and practice [KAP] among mothers towards intestinal parasites and diarhoea in three regions in Gaza strip were studied. A total of 659 mothers of children attended a primary health care centre [PHCC] for medical services were selected. Data were obtained through self administered questionnaire which distributed to each mother attending the PHCC. The questionnaire included some sociodemographic, economical information and implemented in year 2006. In the present study age group ranged between 15 and more than 35 years. It was found that children belonging to mothers in the age groups 15-25 years and >35 years old were found infected with intestinal parasites and diarrhea and had similar prevalence's [37.3 and 37.1%]. Mother education had a positive effect for the decreasing of parasitosis among children. The variation in the prevalence of intestinal parasites due to region was noted where the south of Gaza Strip had the high prevalence [40.6%] with a significant difference [p=0.004]. Children living in houses with sandy yards was infected with intestinal parasites more those living in houses with tiles [p=.02]