INFANT FEEDING

Objectives: To evaluate the infant feeding beliefs and practices of mothers in our setup. Design of Study: A cross-sectional study. Settings: Fauji Foundation Hospital. Rawalpindi. Period: From Jan 2007 to September 2007. Materials and Methods: 366 mothers of infants attending Fauji Foundation Hospital were interviewed by using pre-tested questionnaire. Data was collected for Mothers beliefs ad practices regarding infant feeding. Descriptive statistics like percentages, mean and range were obtained by using SPSS version 11. Results: 366 mothers from rural and urban areas attending hospitals were interviewed. 63.9% mothers believed that breast milk should be given as first feed. Pre-lacteal feeds were given to 56% of infants. Major source of information for giving pre-lacteal feeds was relatives. At birth, 43.7% mothers discarded clostrum considering it harmful and useless for baby. Frequency of breast feeding was high initially at birth but declined rapidly by early supplementation with bottle feeding. Inadequate weaning in terms of timing, quality and quantity was observed. Cultural beliefs and taboos like hot and cold food influenced 61.5% of mothers due to which they restricted important food items. Conclusions: A targeted health education campaign should stress the main advantages of breast feeding. Messages should stress the protective benefits of clostrum and encourage mothers to start breast feeding immediately after birth. Potentially hazardous practices including pre lacteal feeding should be discarded. Local cultural and traditional practices and beliefs regarding different food items should be identified. This will help to improve the food intake of infants by strengthening the useful beliefs and discontinuing harmful ones.