ABSTRACT

This study was carried out to assess the nutrition knowledge, infant and young children

feeding practices among nursing mothers in Mgbidi, Oru West L.G.A., Imo State and the

anthropometric status of their children. Globally, it is estimated that malnutrition is directly

and indirectly responsible for at least 35% of under five children. The immediate causes of

malnutrition in the first 2 years of life are inappropriate breastfeeding practices coupled with

high rates of infections. A cross sectional study design was used. Data were collected by the

use of pretested questionnaires. Indicators of nutritional status (weight for height, height for

age, weight for age and BMIA) were determined using anthropometrics software (WHO

Anthro) version 3.2. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20 was used to

analyze the data collected. Descriptive statistics was used to determine the frequencies,

mean and standard deviation while correlation was used to determine the relationship

between feeding habits and anthropometric status. A total of 245 mothers and children pair

were included in the study and a simple random sampling technique was used. The results

of this study showed that only few (6.9%) had very good! excellent knowledge, 24.9% had

average knowledge whereas 31.8% and 3 6.3% had good and poor knowledge of nutrition

respectively. Many (67%) of the mothers gave their children other foods/fluid apart from

breast milk in the first 3 days delivery, 79% did not express breast milk while only 33.6%

fed their children on demand. About 29.8% introduced complementary foods at 4months of

age and 34% gave other foods because the baby was always hungry/crying. A good number

of them (79.8%) gave snacks to their children and almost (90.9%) gave fruits and

vegetables. The weight -for- height status reveals that 13.5% were wasted while 6.1% were

severely wasted. The BMI —for-Age status showed that 9.0% and 6.9% were underweight

and severely underweight respectively. The height-for-Age status revealed that 21.2% were

stunted while 5.7% were severely stunted. There was a positive significant relationship

(p<O.05) between weight for age and the child's current feeding pattern. The BMI-for-Age

status had a negative significant relationship (P<0.05) with the frequency of breastfeeding,

and the child's feeding pattern in the mother's absence but had a negative significant

relationship with daily food frequency. Weight-for-length/height had a significant (p<O.05)

but negative relationship with daily food frequency and height for age had a significant

(p<0.05) but a negative relationship with daily food frequency but had a positive significant

relationship (p<O.05) with consumption of snacks and the type of snacks consumed. This

result showed that the feeding practices are strong determinants of children's

anthropometric status and therefore, emphasis should be based on improving the

breastfeeding and complementary feeding practices adopted by these nursing mothers

which could help minimize the risk of malnutrition especially under nutrition.