Background: Early initiation of complementary feeding which was widely
documented in many countries exposed infants to increased risk of morbidity and
mortality. The purpose of this study was to assess the prevalence of early
initiation of complementary feeding and associated factors in Bishoftu Town,
Oromia, Ethiopia. Methods: An institutional based cross-sectional study design
was conducted from January-February 2015 among 422 mothers of infant aged less
than 6 months selected from four public health facilities. Prevalence of early
initiation of complementary feeding was determined using “recall since birth”
method. Multi-variable logistic regression analysis was employed to control
confounders in determining association between early initiation of complementary
feeding and selected independent variables. Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR), 95%
Confidence Interval (CI) and P < 0.05 were used to claim statistical significance.
Results: The prevalence of early initiation of complementary feeding was 32.9%
(137/416, 95% CI: 28.0, 37.0). The odd of mothers with delayed initiation of
Breastfeeding was 4.76 times higher to expose their child to early
complementary feeding than women who initiated breastfeeding within one hour
after delivery with AOR 4.76 (95% CI; 2.48 -9.13, P value < 0.001). This finding
was a little higher than estimates of other studies. The odds of house wife
mothers and mothers who delivered at health institution had 64% and 74% lower
risk to early initiate complementary feeding than employed and home delivered
mothers with AOR 0.34 (95% CI; 0.21, 0.55) and AOR 0.26 (95% CI; 0.08, 0.89),
respectively. The odd of mothers who lacked knowledge on the duration of
optimum breastfeeding duration was 3.91 times higher to practice early
initiation of complementary feeding than who correctly knew it with AOR 3.91 (95%;
2.33, 6.54, P-value 0.001). Conclusions: Almost one third of mothers initiated
early initiation of complementary feeding at four months of their child’s age.
Encouraging all mothers to initiate breastfeeding within an hour, providing
counseling service on recommended six-month duration of exclusive breastfeeding
was recommended.
Cite this paper
Deme, G. G. , Bekele, S. A. , Argaw, M. D. and Berhane, Y. (2015). Factors Associated with Early Initiation of Complementary Feeding in Bishoftu Town, Oromia, Ethiopia. Open Access Library Journal, 2, e1949. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/oalib.1101949.
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