Uptake of minimum acceptable diet among children aged 6–23 months in orthodox religion followers during fasting season in rural area, DEMBECHA, north West Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Under-nutrition is the cause for poor physical and mental development and has more burden among infants and young children aged between 6 and 23 months. Cultural practices like not providing animal source foods for infants and young child aged between 6 and 23 months were barrier for practicing proper children feeding. The aim of this study was to assess minimum acceptable diet and associated factors among children aged between 6 and 23 months in Orthodox religion during fasting season in rural area, Dembecha, Ethiopia. Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted to assess Minimum Acceptable diet. Random sampling technique was applied to select 506 study participants. Interview was used to collect data on Practice of minimum acceptable diet, minimum dietary diversity, minimum meal frequency and related factors among children aged between 6 and 23 months from mothers / caregivers. Result: About 8.6% of infants and young children aged between 6 and 23 months received minimum acceptable diet. Education status of mother(AOR = 0.22,95%CI:0.1, 0.48), involvement of mother in decision making (AOR = 0.22,95%CI:0. 10,0.48), birth order of index children (AOR = 0.36,95%CI:0.14,0. 94), knowledge on feeding frequency (AOR = 0.3,95% CI:0. 16,0.58), and institutional delivery (AOR = 5.13, 95%CI: 1.26, 20.80) were significantly associated with minimum acceptable diet. Conclusion: Minimum acceptable diet practice was low. Educational status of mother, involvement of mother in decision making, knowledge on feeding frequency and institutional delivery were significantly associated with minimum acceptable diet. This indicates that nutrition education and counseling related to infant and young child feeding practice is not addressed for all mothers. Strengthening mothers' education on acceptable child feed practice, and working with religion leaders to increase knowledge of mothers on child feed practice are recommended.

Mothers’ knowledge and attitudes regarding child feeding recommendations, complementary feeding practices and determinants of adequate diet

“…Among a sample of children from South West Ethiopia, Edris et al found 38% of the children attaining minimum diet diversity score [21]. The ndings of this study are however comparable to the 8.6% of children aged 6-23 months meeting minimum acceptable diet reported among children from a rural area in North West Ethiopia [13] and the 36.7% and 7.3% rates of minimum meal frequency and minimum adequate diet respectively reported among children from the Cross-River State of Nigeria [12]. Our ndings also compare favourably with the 12% of Ghanaian children meeting minimum adequate diet as reported in the 2017/2018 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey report for Ghana [22].…”

“…In Nigeria, Udoh et al [12]found 31.5% of a sample of 330 children aged 6-23 months from Cross River State meeting minimum diet diversity, 36.5% minimum meal frequency and 7.3% received an acceptable diet. A community-based cross-sectional study among a sample of 506 children from North West Ethiopia found only 63% of the children receiving minimum meal frequency, 9.8% for minimum diet diversity and only 8.6% received the minimum acceptable diet [13].…”

“…A number of factors have been noted for the less optimal rates of appropriate complementary feeding including maternal education, income levels, antenatal attendance, spouse employment status, quality of institutional healthcare delivery, women empowerment in decision making, and among others [7,[13][14][15].…”

Complementary Feeding Status of Children Residing in Urban Slum of East Delhi

“…7,11,13,18 A study by Mulat E. et al report even less frequency of MAD in west Ethiopia. 21 Higher education status of the mother was found to be a significantly associated with higher MAD, as also reported by Mulat E et al 21 The study was conducted in a single urban slum of Delhi and therefore its external validity is limited. The association between the complementary feeding indicators and certain socio-demographic indicators is exploratory as the sample sizes and study design was primarily for a descriptive study and not a comparative study.…”

Mothers’ knowledge and attitudes regarding child feeding recommendations, complementary feeding practices and determinants of adequate diet

“…A number of factors have been noted for the less optimal rates of appropriate complementary feeding including maternal education, income levels, antenatal attendance, spouse employment status, quality of institutional healthcare delivery, women empowerment in decision making, and among others [11,[13][14][15]. Notable among these factors is the mothers' knowledge and attitudes towards recommended infant and young child feeding practices.…”