Infant Feeding Practices and Nutritional Status of Children in North Western Nigeria

Studies on infant feeding practices and nutritional status of children in North Western Nigeria were carried out. More than 50% of caregivers were full-time housewives while about 39% do not have any form of education. Main source of drinking water was from unprotected sources like river/lake (24%), private well (23.0%) and public well (13.5%) while the predominant source of energy for cooking and main type of toilet in the households were wood (85.7%) and pit latrines (67%) respectively. On the average, over 70% of mothers were still breastfeeding at the time of the survey and duration of breastfeeding was between 13-24 months (73.4%). Only 54.3% of mothers in North West practiced exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months but in addition to breastmilk over three-quarter of caregivers gave plain water while 50% of caregivers in Kaduna state ever bottlefed their child with infant formula mostly from the 6th month. Few caregivers (19%) that bottlefeeds always sterilizes them. Complementary foods were introduced to majority of the children much earlier at 3rd month (41.2%) than the 6th month recommended while some caregivers introduces complementary foods at 1-2 months (17.8%). This study revealed that on the average, 31.7% of the children sampled were severely stunted which was lower than the National average. More attention needs to be paid to the specific behaviours surrounding feeding and any constraints to childcare in North Western Nigeria.