Determinants of inappropriate complementary feeding practices in infant and young children in Bangladesh: secondary data analysis of Demographic Health Survey 2007

Abstract

Suboptimal and inappropriate complementary feeding practices are one of the major causes of child undernutrition in the first 2 years of life in South Asian countries including Bangladesh. The aim of this study was to use the newly developed World Health Organization infant feeding indicators to identify the potential risk factors associated with inappropriate complementary feeding practices. We used data for 1728 children aged 6-23 months obtained from nationally representative data from the 2007 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey to assess the association between complementary feeding and other characteristics using multivariate models. Only 71% of infants were consuming soft, semi-solid and solid food by 6-8 months of age. In the multivariate analysis, mothers who had no education had a higher risk for not introducing timely complementary feeds [adjusted odds ratio (AOR)=2.14; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.08-4.23, P=0.03], not meeting the minimum dietary diversity (AOR=1.69; 95% CI: 1.14-2.54, P=0.01), minimum acceptable diet (AOR=1.70, 95% CI: 1.09-2.67, P=0.02) and minimum meal frequency (AOR=1.73; 95% CI: 1.20-2.49, P=0.003) than the mothers who had secondary or higher education. Infants born in Sylhet, Chittagong and Barisal division had higher risks for not meeting minimum dietary diversity, meal frequency and acceptable diet (P<0.001). The poorest two quintiles had poor levels of minimum meal frequency but dietary quality improved with age. In Bangladesh addressing the fourth Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target will require substantial improvement in complementary feeding practices. Appropriate Infant and Young Child feeding massages should to be development and delivered through existing health system.

Compliance to National Infant and Young Child Feeding Recommendation and Associated Factor Among Mothers of Children 6-23 months-of-age in Gombora District, Southern Ethiopia: Community Based Cross Sectional Study

“…The odds being noncompliant was 81% times among those not knowledgeable on indicators IYCF than those knowledgeable on indicators IYCF (AOR=0.19 (95% CI=0.075, 0.47)). This finding was in agreement with study done in Udupi district of India and Bangladesh [19,20]. The reason could be that knowledge helps mothers to have a good perception of prevention and treatment of malnutrition during infancy and early childhood.…”

Determinants of inadequate complementary feeding practices among children aged 6–23 months in Ghana

“…Therefore the low prevalence of this indicator suggests that the majority of children were either not being fed as frequently as the recommended two to four times daily, or were not given food from four or more of the recommended food groups in their diet. Such low prevalence of minimum acceptable diet has been reported in past studies in Tanzania (36) and Bangladesh (1) . There is the need for formative assessment to understand the knowledge, attitudes and practices among key household actors in order to develop community-based nutrition intervention to improve complementary feeding practices that pay attention to the different socio-cultural context of each community.…”

“…The prevalence of adequate meal frequency was however found to be positively significant within all geographic regions in Indonesia (21) . Different cultural feeding practices and level of adult education may be some reasons for these variations in other countries (1,21) . Investigations should be conducted in future studies to find out the reason for this regional variation.…”

“…This finding is supported by a previous study conducted in Indonesia (21) in which it was found that the minimum dietary diversity prevalence was significantly lower for mothers who delivered their babies at home, among other factors. In another study in Bangladesh (1) , researchers looked at factors associated with complementary feeding and found that babies who were delivered with the help of untrained birth attendants (among other factors) had significantly lower minimum dietary diversity. This association may be due to the fact that mothers who delivered their babies at a health facility were more likely to attend antenatal clinics where they were likely to have good contacts with health workers who would provide them with information and support on proper child feeding practices.…”

“…Inadequate complementary feeding practices have a detrimental impact on children's health and growth in the first 2 years of life (1) . This period has been recognized as the 'critical window' for the promotion of optimal growth, health and development of a child (2) .…”