ABSTRACT

The study was aimed at assessing the determinants of the nutrition knowledge and complementary feeding practices of mothers in Ihite-Uboma LGA, Imo State. A cross sectional sampling was used. The population of study comprised of mothers of children aged between 6 months to 23 months in Ihitte-Uboma LGA of Imo State. Multi stage random sampling was used to select respondents. A structured and validated questionnaire was used to collect data for the study. Descriptive statistical methods such as frequency and percentage were used to analyze data on socio-economic, knowledge, attitude and feeding practices. Chi-square statistics were used to determine the influence of the mothers’ sociodemographic status on their complementary feeding practices and nutrition knowledge. More than half(53.2%) ofthe respondents were less than 12 months while about (46.8%) were between the ages of (12-23 months). Some (40.6%) of the respondents were mothers between the age of 26-35 years, while 10.7% were above 45 years. Majority (77.0%) were married. Most (23.8%) of the respondents had income between N10,001-N20,000, while only 13.0% earned above N50,000. It was found that 88.8% consumed semi-solid food the previous day and 96.5% had food diversity of > 4 food groups. The major snacks (55.8%) given to the children was biscuits/buns/meat pie and the children were mostly (61.2%) fed in their individual plates. The result also showed that, 51.9% ofmothers responded that breastfeeding was increased during illness and the nutrient value of complementary food was mostly increased by addition of ground fish or crayfish to gruels (54.4%). Several mothers did not have appropriate knowledge of the meaning of complementary foods (59.4%), continuation of breastfeeding with complementary foods (78.2%) and correct consistency of porridge (91.2%). However, the mothers were more knowledgeable concerning age ofintroduction of complementary foods (51.3%), responsive feeding (72.4%), adequacy of complementary food (64.0%) and appropriate feeding during illness (70.1%). Age only had statistically significant relationship (P=0.001) with knowledge of the adequacy of complementary food, but did not show relationship with the other knowledge variables, but educational level had statistically significant relationship (P<0.05) with all the knowledge variables. Also, most of the sociodemographic variables only showed a mild relationship with complementary feeding practices. It was concluded that the low relationship between sociodemographic status of the mothers and their knowledge and practice of complementary feeding may result from the influence of . the sociodemographic status of the fathers which were not considered in the study, since fathers are usually the breadwinners of the home and most of the respondents were married It was also recommended that the female gender should be encouraged and supported to undergo higher levels of education, in order to improve their knowledge base.