ABSTRACT
Introduction: COVID‑19 pandemic was postulated to affect the infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices and their nutritional status. This study was planned to assess IYCF practices and nutritional status of infant and young children residing in slum areas and their association with selected background characteristics. Materials and Methods: Acommunity‑based, cross‑sectional study was conducted in slums of Kolkata Municipal Corporation among 161 mother–child dyads from October to December 2020. After obtaining informed consent, mothers were interviewed to collect information about their socioeconomic status, hardship faced during pandemic, and IYCF practices of their children using indicators proposed by the World Health Organization and Government of India. Weight and height were measured using the standard operating protocol. The proportion was used to express descriptive statistics. Binary logistic regression models were used for calculating the adjusted odds ratio (AOR) using PSPP (v 1.20). Results: Only 64 (39.8%) children received age‑appropriate feeding; 73 (45.3%) had single/multiple anthropometric failure(s). Reduction of family income was reported by 142 (88.2%) respondents. Children aged 6–8 months (AOR = 17.08, 6.43–45.42) were more likely to not have appropriate feeding. Association of female gender (AOR = 2.00, 1.01–4.00), maternal education less than middle class (AOR = 2.58, 1.22–5.46), and lack of appropriate feeding (AOR = 2.57, 1.08–6.12) were statistically significant with the presence of anthropometric failure. Conclusions: The study revealed a dismal scenario of child feeding and nutritional status of young children in the urban slums of Kolkata. Pandemic and imposed restrictions hit the families hard by reducing income and increasing food‑related costs.
ABSTRACT
Background: Suboptimal feeding practices during the infancy increase the risk of death, illness, and malnutrition. Despiteoverwhelming evidence of the benefits of exclusive breastfeeding, only about 40% babies under 6 months are exclusivelybreastfed, due to the lack of understanding of optimal feeding practices and lack of support from health service providers,community members, and families; babies who are not exclusively breastfed in the early months have a higher risk of death,especially from infection. The Lancet’s 2003 child survival series identified that exclusive breastfeeding could save up to 1.3million children worldwide. This essential intervention involves the early initiation of breastfeeding and ensuring that the mothergives only breastmilk and no other food or fluids during the first 6 months of life. Undernutrition of children is an importantcontributor to the deaths of 10.5 million children globally each year.Aims and Objectives: The present study seeks to estimate the proportion of mothers carrying out age-appropriate infantfeeding practices. Besides, the present study was conducted to study factors associated with infant feeding practices andreasons preventing exclusive breastfeeding in infants.Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional community-based study was conducted in the field practice area of Rural Health andTraining Centre, Mandur, Goa, from February 2019 to August 2019. Recruitment of study population was done by a systematicrandom sampling method and study population comprised of mothers with infants between 9 months and 1 year. A structuredquestionnaire was used to collect data in a face to face interview with the mother.Results: In the present study, 150 infants aged 9 months to 1 year were recruited. It was observed that exclusive breastfeedingup to 6 months was carried out in 94 infants (62.66%). Early initiation of breastfeeding was carried out in 37 infants (24.7%).Weaning of infants by 6 months was started in 72 infants (48.18%). Exclusive breastfeeding of infants was found to bestatistically significantly associated with mother’s occupation (≥2 = 27.152; P = 0.00019), religion (≥2 = 12.19; P = 0.015), andage (≥2 = 25.4; P = 0.0002).Conclusions: Suboptimal feeding practices during the infancy increase the risk of death, illness, and malnutrition. It is imperativeto educate mothers on infant and young child feeding practices and create awareness within communities to achieve optimalgrowth and development of infants.
ABSTRACT
Background: Early or timely initiation of breastfeeding, specifically within 1 hour of birth has benefits for survival and beyond and it is recommended by the World Health Organization. Breastfeeding initiation after the first hour of birth doubles the risk of neonatal mortality. The present study has been conducted to estimate the prevalence and determine the factors affecting early initiation of breastfeeding in rural areas of Dibrugarh, district, Assam. Methods: Community based cross sectional study from May 2017 to April 2018 among mothers having children in the age group 0 to 23 months in the rural areas of Dibrugarh district. The sample size calculated for the study was 360 children. Results: The results were analyzed for 334 children. Prevalence of early initiation of breastfeeding was found to be 54.8%. On multivariate regression analysis the occupation and education of mothers, number of antenatal checkup visits, type of delivery and religion were found to be independently associated with early initiation of breastfeeding. Conclusions: This study reveals that the early initiation of breast feeding is lower in rural areas of Dibrugarh district. The findings clearly highlight the importance of imparting health education to family members and mothers right from antenatal period on infant and child feeding practices.
ABSTRACT
A cross-sectional study was conducted among 245 under-two slum-dwelling children in Bankura town, West Bengal, to assess their feeding practices and its association with nutritional status. Child’s gender, number of family members, standard of living (SLI), and household food security (HFS) were assessed through interview of mothers/ caregivers. Child feeding practices were measured with Composite Child Feeding Index comprising of age-appropriate, multiple, infant and young child feeding (IYCF) indicators and expressed in standardized IYCF score. Weight and length of the children were measured and the nutritional status was assessed using World Health Organization Growth Standard 2006. Standardized IYCF score was signifi cantly lower in undernourished children than those with normal grades. Per unit increase in standardized IYCF score was likely to reduce the prevalence of underweight, stunting and wasting by 2-3% after adjusting for other variables. Low/ very low HFS, low SLI and female gender were associated with underweight and stunting.