ABSTRACT

Poor infant feeding practices coupled with high rates of infectious diseases are the major causes of malnutrition during the first two years of life. Thus, appropriate breast feeding and complementary feeding practices and access to adequate amounts of appropriate foods are essential for optimal infant nutrition. Therefore, this cross sectional study was aimed to access the influence of maternal knowledge, attitude and practices of infsnt feeding and care on the anthropometric status of 6-24 months old children in Udenu Local Government Area of Enugu State. A structured questionnaire was used to obtain information on socio-economic characteristics as well as knowledge, attitude and practices of the mothers on complementary feeding. Anthropometric status of the children was calculated using WHO anthro. Data obtained were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequencies and percentages, mean and correlation. The results of the different variables collected revealed that many of the respondents mothers 113(43.3%) were within the ages of 34-41 years while 10.3%, 26.4% and 19.9% within the. age range of 18-25, 26-33 and 40 and above respectively. Some (41.0%) of the women completed their secondary school education, 69.3% were traders and 47.1% earned N 10,001 — N=20,O00 monthly. Majority (85.1%) had good knowledge of complementary feeding. About 35.2%, 39.1%, 39.5% and 5 1.3% of the women had good attitude of when to introduce pap to the infant, need to give children fruits, need to give children more meat, fish and agg than adults and the need to feed the children three times • alongside snacks. Majority (85.4%) breastfed their babies less than 24 hours after birth, 49.4% and 42.9% fed their children 3-4 times and 2-3 times, respectively. Most (64.0% and 41.8%) gave their children pap and peak 123. Soft drinks were mostly given to the children by 49.4% of the women. Majority (93.1%) of the women gave their children snacks such as biscuit (74.3%). Majority (92.3%) of the children consumed more than 4 food groups while 7.7% consumed less. Prevalence of wasting, underweight and stunting was 10.0%, 24.5% and 6.1% among the children. No significant relationship was found between the knowledge of complementary feeding practices of the mothers and the height-for-age and weight-for-age of the children. However, weight-for-height was significant (p<0.05). therefore, emphases should be based on improving the complementary feeding practices adopted by these women which could help to reduce the number of children at risk based on their weight-for-age, height-for-age and weight-for height z-scores. >