| dc.description.abstract | Background: Appropriate nutrition intake during first two years will reduce child mortality and
morbidity rate and minimizes the risk of incidence of adult age diseases. Inappropriate feeding
practices pose major negative implications to the socio-economic development of a nation and to
cause poverty at the family level. Hence, emphasize on infant feedings practices is important to
develop a healthy nation. Even though Sri Lanka shows remarkable improvements in its health
services, prevalence of child malnutrition poses a severe health problem in the country. This
study aimed to determine maternal knowledge, beliefs and practices on infant feeding and its
impact on growth among 6–24-month-old infants. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried
out in one of the MOH area in Jaffna, Sri Lanka. 256 mothers of 6-24 months aged babies were
interviewed using interviewer-administered survey. Anthropometric measurements, demographic
data, feeding patterns, maternal knowledge and attitudes and information on institutional
assistances were collected. Results: Out of 256 samples, 49.6% of them were male and 50.4%
were females. Exclusive breastfeeding rate for first 6 months was around 40%. In total, 46.1%
infants initiated complementary feeding right after 6 months. More than 80% of the babies were
found to be malnourished according to the BMI reference chart of WHO. Only 84 mothers
scored more than average on nutritional knowledge score. Significant associations were found
among nutritional status of the babies and exclusive breastfeeding, knowledge score, birthweight,
maternal education level and feeding by mothers (p=0.004,0.047,0.000,0.09,0.030 respectively).
Conclusions: overall feeding indices including EBF and CF of the study group were not
satisfactory. Social and traditional practices influenced more on feeding patterns and behaviours
regardless of maternal knowledge score and education level. More health interventions with
frequent and continuous evaluation is essential to improve the health condition of the babies. | en_US |
