Barriers of Appropriate Complementary Feeding Practices in Under – 2 Children

When breast milk is no longer enough to meet the nutritional needs of infants, complementary foods should be added to their diet. it is a very vulnerable period when malnutrition starts in many infants, contributing significantly to high prevalence of malnutrition in under-5 children world-wide. in bangladesh, complementary feeding (cf) practices are not satisfactory. the objectives of the study were to look into the feeding patterns of under-2 children and to identify the causes which lead mothers/ caregivers to practice inappropriate cf. this cross-sectional study was done in the pediatric department of sir salimullah medical college mitford hospital, dhaka and in a private chamber from a district town of bangladesh from october, 2011 to december, 2011. four hundred mother-child pairs were enrolled by non-random convenience sampling. different aspects of feeding practices (age of initiation of cf, type of first complementary food, current main complementary food & its quantity, and frequency of cf) were analyzed. bottle feeding, fast foods and lack of proper family support were most important barriers (p<0.05). high rate of early initiation of cf was mainly due to mothers’ perception that breast milk alone was not enough (81.8%) and main cause of late initiation was refusal of complementary foods by their babies (48.4%). feeding practices were mainly influenced by relatives (25%), qualified doctors (15.3%), neighbors (14.5%) & mother-in-laws (13.5%). cf practices are still far from ideal. strengthening of nutrition education to mothers/caregivers and family members/relatives along with awareness building in the community may change the wrong practices.