ABSTRACT
Objectives: To compare the feeding practices and underweight prevalence of hearth children with those of non hearth children. Method: A comparative cross sectional study was carried out from 1st April to 30th June 2009. The study population comprised mothers with children aged 6-24 months and of the same socioeconomic and cultural ties from two areas of Quetta District, Pakistan. The “Multi Level Random Sampling Technique” was used. Hearth mothers comprised those who attended hearth sessions (2006-2008) in the hearth area. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire and analyzed using Epi-Info version 3.3.2 and SPSS version 17.0 for windows. Results: The total study population was 200 mothers and the response rate was 95%. There was a statistically significant difference between the hearth and non hearth areas regarding age groups (P<0.01), education of mothers (P<0.05), male: female ratio of children (P<0.05), weighing of babies at birth (P<0.05), age for initiation of complementary feeds (P<0.01), feeding practices of mothers (P<0.01) and underweight prevalence (P<0.001). Conclusion: Feeding practices are significantly better and underweight prevalence significantly less in hearth mothers compared to non hearth mothers.