TITLE:
Mothers Experience about Complementary Feeding Practice in Bangladesh
AUTHORS:
Kuntala Gain, Shanzida Khatun, Md. Sazzad Hossain, Dipali Rani Mallick
KEYWORDS:
Experience, Complementary Feeding, Practice, Mothers, Children
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Pediatrics,
Vol.10 No.3,
August
20,
2020
ABSTRACT: Background: Complementary feeding is a significant milestone that has nutritional,
developmental, and health implications. Worldwide, 33% of the deaths are linked
to malnutrition. Objective: To describe the mothers’ experience about
complementary feeding practice with child aged less than two years in
Bangladesh. Method: A descriptive qualitative study was conducted from
July 2018 to June 2019. This study was approved by the Institutional Review
Board (IRB) NIANER. 20 mothers of children of 6 - 24 months of age were
recruited purposively who live in Sattalla slum. Descriptive statistics were
used to analyze the mothers’ demographic characteristics and thematic analysis
was used to describe mothers’ experience about complementary feeding practice. Results: The study showed that the average age of the mothers was 25 (SD = 4.75) years.
Only 5% of the mothers have higher education. Through the findings, two main
themes have been identified. Moreover, first main theme includes three
subthemes. Fifty percent of the mothers stated that appropriate time to start
complementary food for their babies is from 6 months of age. Mothers feed
various types of complementary foods. Most of the mothers have knowledge about
complementary feeding but they do not practice appropriately. Almost all of the
mothers (95%) stated that their babies do not like to eat anything, and 45% of
mothers feed only breast milk. Conclusion: Findings of the study will
provide information for the nurses resulted in increasing the rate of
complementary feeding practice among mothers of children in Bangladesh. Future
study is needed to identify the factors influencing complementary feeding
practice among mothers of 6 - 24 months old children in Bangladesh.