%0 Journal Article
%T Socio-economic status and feeding practices among the mothers of under-five children in an urban slum of Bangladesh: a cross-sectional study
%A AFM Sujauddoula Al Amin
%A Asadullahil Galib
%A Md Abdur Rouf
%A Md Ekramul Haque
%A Md Fazlay Rabby
%A Sumon Chandra Debnath
%A Taslima Zannat
%A Zahidur Rahim
%J Asian Journal of Medical and Biological Research
%D 2018
%R https://doi.org/10.3329/ajmbr.v4i3.38470
%X Poor socio-economic conditions and inappropriate feeding practices in slum dwelling mothers can have adverse consequences for the health and nutritional status of their under-five children. The present study was to assess the feeding practices and socio-economic status mothers of under-five children. A cross-sectional study was conducted from January 2015 to December 2015 in four urban slums of Bangladesh. Two hundred and fifty five mother-child pairs were selected by non-random convenience sampling and were interviewed using a pre-tested questionnaire. Anthropometric measurements were taken from under-five children aged 6-59 months. In the present study, boys (54.0%) were predominant over girls (46.0%). The prevalence of initiation of breastfeeding after delivery, prelacteal feeds, exclusive breastfeeding and bottle-feeding were 34.5%, 43.5%, 39.6% and 30.6%, respectively. Out of 255 children studied, more than half (57.6%) of the children received complementary feeds at the appropriate time whereas 45.9% children received with appropriate consistency. Meal frequency was 40.4% and minimum dietary diversity was given to only 39.6% of the children. Minimum dietary diversity means feeding the child food from at least four food groups. Feeding practices improve as mother£¿s education levels and household income status increases while maximum slum dwelling mothers are illiterate and primary level completed and household income status are not static. Data showed that overall 14.0% of under-five children were suffering from malnutrition. In terms of severity, 11.3% were moderately malnourished-MAM and 2.7% were severely malnourished-SAM. Various inappropriate feeding practices are more prevalent among urban slum mothers. From this study, it was evident that mothers of low socio-economic group have poor knowledge regarding the feeding practices of their under-five children. There is an urgent need to bridge the ¡°knowledge gap¡± and ¡°practice gap¡± of mother£¿s from urban slum and lower socio economic strata of the community by further strengthening the on-going breastfeeding programme, breastfeeding knowledge and practice of mothers in urban slum areas. Asian J. Med. Biol. Res. September 2018, 4(3): 307-314
%K socio-economic status
%K feeding practices
%K under-five children
%K urban slum
%U https://www.banglajol.info/index.php/AJMBR/article/view/38470