ASSESSING INFANT AND YOUNG CHILD FEEDING PRACTICES ON NUTRITIONAL STATUS OF CHILDREN (0-23 MONTHS) IN THE KUMBUNGU DISTRICT OF GHANA

Abstract

Infant and young child feeding practices have been identified as one of the major determinants of children's nutritional status and account to a large extent for the high rates of malnutrition among children in Ghana. This study is aimed at determining infant and young feeding practices in relation to nutritional status of children under two years in the Kumbungu District of Ghana. This was a cross-sectional study conducted on 274 pairs of children and their mothers who were randomly selected. Anthropometric measurements (weight and height/length) were measured to assess the nutritional status of the children. The breastfeeding and complementary practices of the mothers were examined. Purposive sampling was also used to select two mother-to-mother support groups and two focused group discussions were conducted. The relationship of these feeding practices provided by mothers and the nutritional statuses of the children were analyzed using logistic regression analysis. The prevalence of underweight, stunting and wasting in the study area was 20.8%, 21.9% and 19.7% respectively. Close to 60% of the children (57.8%) were introduced late to the breast. Only 8.1% of the children less than 6 months were receiving exclusive breastfeeding. All the three indices of malnutrition were positively associated with the early introduction of complementary foods. About, 60.0% of children under 6 months were receiving bottle feeding. Nutrition education; encouraging exclusive breastfeeding and appropriate and timely complementary feeding is important in semi-rural and farming communities in developing countries such as Ghana and in the Kumbungu District to be specific in order to combat the prevalence of childhood malnutrition.