Breastfeeding and complementary feeding practices among children living in a rice surplus area, Central Java, Indonesia

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to investigate breastfeeding and complementary feeding practices among children less than five years old and living in a rice surplus area in Demak Regency, Central Java. Design/methodology/approach From December 2014 to February 2015, a cross-sectional survey was carried out in Demak, which had a high proportion of undernourished children despite high rice production. In total, 384 mothers having children below five years old from farmer family background were interviewed using a structured questionnaire about sociodemographic parameters and child feeding practices. Food habits were also investigated among these women during two focus group discussions in two selected sub-districts. Findings Only 10.9 per cent of the children were exclusively breastfed for six months. About 60 per cent of the mothers practiced supplementary feeding in addition to breastfeeding and started complementary feeding too early. Duration of exclusive breastfeeding practice and child’s age at onset of complementary feeding were positively correlated (p = 0.04). The main reasons of supplementary feeding and too early introduction of complementary food were based on the elderly women’s opinions, and the very short duration of maternity leave for employed mothers. Mothers with a low education level had a higher chance of not reaching the optimum score of complementary feeding practices (p = 0.012). Originality/value Despite a high level of food security in the project area, inadequate knowledge of young child feeding practices has contributed to sub-optimal breastfeeding practices. Higher educated women were more likely to follow optimal complementary feeding practices. Therefore, promotion of breastfeeding and complementary feeding practices targeting all key actors should be implemented in the study area to prevent undernutrition among infants.

Determinants of age‐appropriate breastfeeding, dietary diversity, and consumption of animal source foods among Indonesian children

“…Many mothers have stopped breastfeeding their babies at the age of 18–23 months. Several possible reasons for this included a perception of insufficient breast milk and influence from family members (Barati et al, ; Kavle, LaCroix, Dau, & Engmann, ). The lower odds in ASF consumption between ages 6–8 and 12–17 months indicate that many mothers may have waited until 18 months to introduce more types of ASF.…”

“…A study in urban Indonesia showed a similar trend in which children in lower socio‐economic households had higher odds of continued breastfeeding at 1 year and lower odds of early introduction to solid, semisolid, and soft foods at age 6 months (Santika et al, ). Similarly, mothers with high labour force participation may have greater means to purchase baby formula and less time to breastfeed or express their milk for later use, hence, wean their babies earlier (Barati et al, ). Mothers seemed to be better at age‐appropriate breastfeeding when babies were the second or later child, possibly due to limited funds to purchase formula for the last child as the total cost to raise children increases with each additional child.…”

“…This finding indicates the need to revamp the child feeding consultation programme in Indonesia. Also, a study in Indonesia has reported that mothers who received free samples of infant formula in their delivery clinics mentioned that they continued giving formula to their children afterwards (Barati et al, ). This observation raises an important issue of the need to include marketing ethics in the measurement of health care quality.…”

Prevalence of prelacteal feeding and associated risk factors in Indonesia: Evidence from the 2017 Indonesia Demographic Health Survey

“…The relatively low prevalence of giving honey also means that power to detect statistically significant associations was limited for this outcome. It was not possible to examine some potential reasons for giving PLF that have previously been reported in the literature [7][8][9][10]12,13,49], because the standard DHS questionnaire did not include questions about them. These include traditions, concern for newborn hunger, perceived insufficiency of breastmilk, pressure from family (husband/mother/mother in-law), advice from health providers, or failure to initiate breastfeeding within first hour.…”

“…For example, in 2017, prevalence of PLF ranged from 33% [21] to 44% [2]. Recent estimates from different regions in Indonesia have varied from 44% to 83% [8,9,12,13,22,23]. Several determinants of PLF practice in Indonesia have also been identified from these studies, including misperception, lack of knowledge, and cultural tradition, but due to small sample size and being restricted to particular region, these findings may not be generalizable to the wider population.…”