Complete coverage and covering completely: Breast feeding and complementary feeding: Knowledge, attitude, and practices of mothers

Publication date: Available online 7 April 2017
Source:Medical Journal Armed Forces India
Author(s): Sunil Jain, R.K. Thapar, R.K. Gupta
BackgroundKnowing current trends for timely comprehensive action for health promotion practices is an important prerequisite for medical practitioners and policy makers.MethodsA survey of mothers at a Tertiary Care Hospital in central India.ResultsOn the knowledge front >83.75% of the mothers studied showed good knowledge about breastfeeding and complementary feeding. Similar, but not as encouraging, were the results about attitude, with 76.25% of mothers having a positive attitude. The results of the practices part were varied. The WHO indicators assessed were 'early initiation of breastfeeding' (68.75%), 'exclusive breastfeeding under 6 months' (85%) (however exclusive breast feeding for first 6 months was carried out by only 36.25%), 'introduction of solid, semi-solid or soft foods' (48.75%), 'continued breastfeeding at 1 year' (63.75%) and 'continued breastfeeding at 2 years' (6.25%).ConclusionsThere is a discrepancy between knowledge and practices. The exclusive breast feeding rates are far from the ideal and there is a decline of continued breast feeding beyond 15 months. This calls for sustained efforts with the aim – 'cover all and cover completely'. The ideal WHO indicator for exclusive breast feeding should be 'exclusive breastfeeding for first 6 months' which will provide information about the completeness of this ideal practice.



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