To Study Association of Sociodemographic Factors with Awareness and Practices Pertaining to Complementary Feeding in Six Months to Two Years old Child Attending Immunization Clinic in a Tertiary Care Hospital of a Medical College in Urban Area

ABSTRACT

National Guidelines on Infant and Young Child Feeding should become an integral part of nation-wide Integrated child development Services (ICDS) and the Reproductive and Child Health (RCH) Programme. These need to be effectively operationalized through the programme managers and field functionaries of these on-going programmes. This can happen only when they are practically oriented to the correct norms of IYCF. Methods: A cross sectional study of complementary feeding practices amongst mothers of children aged six months to two years in an urban setting. The place of study is an immunization clinic in a tertiary care hospital of a medical college located in urban area. Study population comprised of mothers of children aged six months to two years attending an immunization clinic. Study was approved by college Institutional Ethics Committee. Mothers who met the inclusion criteria, attending the immunization clinic, from the selected tertiary care hospital of a medical college were selected by systematic random sampling and interviewed. Data analysis done with the using Microsoft excel. Results: Out of 154 mothers, 51.3% of the mothers were in the age group of 25-34 years followed by 47.4% of the mothers in the age group less than 25 years and only 1.3 % of the mothers were more than 35 years of age. Mean age ± SD of the mothers was 25.26 ± 3.73 with the youngest and the oldest mother being 19 and 39 years old respectively. Among the respondents by religion, majority (80.5%) were Hindus followed by 15.6 % Muslims and only 3.9% were Christians. Conclusion: Time of complementary feeding initiation varied according child’s gender, predominant caregiver of the child, mother’s parity and socio economic status of the family, which were found to be statistically significant.