Background: Adequate early infant nutrition is essential for subsequent optimum growth and development of the child. Exclusive breastfeeding is the cornerstone of the best possible nutrition in early infancy.Objective: To assess current breastfeeding practices in early infancy in Benin City and further progress ( if any) that may have been made in the realisation of optimal early infant feeding practices in the locale in the preceding decade.Methods: A community-based household survey was carried out in three representative wards in Egor Local Government Area of Benin City, from June to September, 2009. Infant feeding practices were evaluated using pre-tested questionnaires on 1068 mothers of infants aged less than 12 months.Result: Five hundred and forty-six (51.1%) infants were aged less than 6 months. The Ever Breastfed Rate was 100.0% while the Timely Suckling Rate was 35.5%. The Exclusive and Predominant Breastfeeding Rates were respectively 40.7% and 30.4% while the Bottle-feeding Rate was 32.2%. Most (98.4%) mothers had correct information about exclusive breastfeeding obtained mainly from antenatal clinics and immunization centres. Factors significantly associated with EBF were high maternal education (χ2 = 9.718; p = 0.045), high socioeconomic status (χ2 = 12.910; p = 0.012), increasing maternal age (χ2 = 14.777; p = 0.022), higher parity (χ2 = 15.212; p = 0.009), delivery in hospital (χ2 = 15.079; p = 0.020) and infant’s age (χ2 = 100.482; P = 0.0001).Conclusions/Recommendations: Breastfeeding practices in Benin City have not improved much from what obtained a decade earlier. Greater emphasis on female education and socio-economic empowerment are advocated as tools for improvement. Reinvigoration of the Baby-friendly Hospital Initiative is also recommended to ensure continued health facility interface that would ensure community mobilisation and support for optimal breastfeeding.Key Words: Breastfeeding, Practices, Early Infancy, Benin City
Background: Whereas considerable insight has been gained and progress made in optimum feeding in early infant feeding same cannot be said with nutrition in late infancy. Tacking challenges associated with nutrition in late infancy demands that extant practices and their shortcomings are exposed.Objectives: To evaluate and document practices regarding feeding in late infancy in Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria.Methods: Using a communitybased household survey involving three representative political wards in Egor Local Government Area of Benin City, feeding practices in late infancy were evaluated using a mix of structured and non-structured, pre-tested questionnaires on 522 mothers of infants aged >6months to 11 months. This was done between June and September, 2009.Results: The age range of mothers was 17-48 years. Diverse ethnic groups were represented with the Binis constituting the largest (48.6%). Bottle feeding rate (BOTFR) was 2.55% and Bottle feeding practice was unassociated with maternal occupation (χ2 = 2.741; p=0.740) and family socioeconomic status (χ2=10.145; p=0.930). Timely complimentary feeding rate (TCFR) was very high (92.7%). Delayed introduction of complimentary feeding was very low (3.6%). Maize gruel (pap) was the commonest (76.6%) complementary food utilized and commonly (99.5%) this was enriched with a variety of other items with milk as the commonest item used. Fish was the commonest (41.0%) animal product used as complimentary food. Use of animal feeds was however generally low and their use was uninfluenced by family socio-economic status (χ2 = 5.424, p=0.066).Conclusions/Recommendations: Bottle feeding rate remains unacceptably high even into late infancy. Factors fostering this should be exposed and tackled because of the dangers inherent in the practice. Timely complimentary feeding practice is encouraging and needs to be supported and sustained for its benefits.Key Words: Nutrition, Late, Infancy, Complimentary feeding, Benin City.
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