THE PREVALENCE OF EARLY COMPLEMENTARY FEEDING PRACTICES AMONG MOTHERS OPD OF SELECTED HOSPITALS OF NAVI MUMBAI

Abstract

Along with breastfeeding or formula feeding if a child is given other liquids, solids and semisolid foods, when milk alone is not sufficient to meet the nutritional needs of the growing child it is known as complementary feeding. A descriptive study was conducted with a quantitative approach. The study aimed to assess the prevalence of early complementary feeding practices among mothers. To find out the association between prevalence of early complementary feeding practices among mothers with selected demographic variables.  Sample were selected through non-probability convenient sampling method consisted of 139 mothers with children in the age group of 2 – 24 months attending out patient departments of selected hospitals of Navi Mumbai. A structured questionnaire was prepared for data collection after validating with 23 experts and reliability was done by test-retest method (r=0.75). Analysis of the data after categorical coding showed that 71.2 % of mothers practiced early complementary feeding. Prevalence of early complementary feeding was significantly associated with education (p=0.021), occupation (p=0.017) and educational qualification (p=0.033) of mother. Thus, concluding that majority of the mothers practice early complementary feeding before the child completed six months of age.