Early Infant Feeding Modality and Nutritional Indicators of Children Aged 06-24 Months in the Mamprugu-Moakduri District of Northern Region, Ghana

ABSTRACT

 Background: Good nutrition in the formative years is very important for optimal growth and development of children. Feeding practices in the early stages of a child’s life are very critical as they set the pace for good growth if done optimally and could also affect the child negatively all through life if done sub-optimally. Feeding practices are variables of a child that are determined by a number of factors including; exclusive breastfeeding, timing of introduction of solid foods to children, feeding challenges during the critical window period and the food preferences of children. However, there is no evidence of any study that has been done in the Mamprugu-Moakduri district to ascertain the association of these factors on the nutritional indicators of children aged 06-24 months in the Mamprugu-Moakduri district. This study was aimed at assessing early infant feeding modality and how it is associated with nutritional indicators of children aged 06-24 months in the district. Methods: The study was community-based, and employed a cross sectional study design to gather quantitative data from study participants. Mothers and their children aged 06-24 months constituted the study population. Quantitative data was gathered using a structured questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS version 22 and the WHO epi info version 7.2. Bivariate analysis and logistic regression modeling were used to determine associations between outcome and predictor variables. Results: Breastfeeding initiation within an hour of birth was practiced by 65.4% of the mothers, none of them practiced exclusive breastfeeding. About 2% of the mothers initiated solid foods before six months, and all of them practiced mixed feeding. Longer feeding time (59%), refusal of different textures of food (27.7%), fussiness or lack of attention during feeding (28.8%) were some of the feeding challenges reported by mothers. x Regression modeling showed significant association between early initiation of complementary feeding and excessive drooling, OR= 0.505, 95%CI, 0.205-1.250. About 40.3% of the children were stunted, 18.4% wasted and 35.7% underweight. Further analysis using regression modeling revealed that only stunting had statistical associations with chewing problems (aOR = 0.560, 95% CI, 0.336-0.933). Conclusion: No woman practiced exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months and the timing for the initiation of solid foods by  most of the mothers was wrong indicating that the infant and young child feeding recommendations are not followed in feeding infants and young children. The findings also revealed that there is high prevalence of child undernutrition in the district as 40.3%, 18.4% and 35.7% were stunted, wasted and underweight respectively. Recommendation: More campaign about the need for exclusive breastfeeding during the first six months of a child’s life should be done by the Ghana Health Service; critical attention should be paid to the “sensitive period” (6-9 months) in feeding infants.