TIMELY INITIATION OF COMPLEMENTARY FEEDING PRACTICE AMONG 6-12 MONTHS OF AGE CHILDREN IN HARAR TOWN, HARARI NATIONAL REGION STATE, ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Infants and young children are at increased risk of malnutrition from six months of age onwards, when breast milk alone is no longer sufficient to meet all nutritional requirements and complementary feeding needs to be started. World Health Organization recommends the introduction of solid food to infants at six months age. Complementary foods are often given too early or too late. This is not appropriate feeding practice as it carries many risks which contribute to persistent child under nutrition. There for the purpose of this study is to assess the magnitude of timely initiation of complementary feeding practice among children 6-12 months of age in Harar Town, Harari region, Ethiopia, from January 1 to January 31, 2014. A community based cross sectional study was conducted among 660 children aged 6-12 months. All children 6-12 months in selected eleven kebeles of Harar town were included in the study and the data were collected using interview questionnaires. Data entry, cleaning and analysis were performed using Epi Data version 3.01 and Statistical Package for Social Sciences, Version 16. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regressions were used to explore the relation between timely initiation of complementary feeding and associated factors. From the total breast-feed children about 551 (85.4%) have started breast-feeding immediately within one hour of birth. Most of the children 599 (87.6%) in the study groups are still on breast-feeding. Among the respondents 63(9.8%) of mother were practiced prelacteal feeding for their last child. About 72.7% started complementary feeding at the right time that is 6 months of age and 116 (18%) of mother had started in the age of 0-5 months, and the rest 60 (9.3%) mothers started by the age of 7-12 months. Factors like marital status of mother, occupational status of mother, maternal exposure to media, institutional delivery, no addiction to substance and time to initiate breast feeding are the predictors of timely initiation of complementary feeding. Inadequate let down of breast milk, increased appetite to eat, and other information sources were some of the reasons mentioned by mothers who initiated early whereas immature stomach, and the perception that breast feeding is enough were the reasons for late initiation of CF. The care takers (mothers) have to be provided with information concerning infant feeding practice at the six contacts of proven nutrition intervention like antenatal care visit, delivery, postnatal care, immunization, sick and well child clinic. Mothers who are not addicted to substance have to be encouraged as this will improve her emotion’s and at the same time feeding status of infants. Media has also contributed to positive changes in infant feeding practice in this study area.