food supplementation practices and categorisation of dishes associated with diets of children aged 6–36 months in rural areas of man, ivory coast

Background and objectives: inappropriate infant feeding practices are a contributing factor to malnutrition in western côte d’ivoire. in this region of the country, 26% of children under 5 years-old are malnourished and 6% of these children are emaciated. this study was carried out in women in the city of man to assess knowledge and practices regarding infant feeding.materials and methods: a descriptive cross-sectional survey of 240 women was carried out to assess their knowledge and practices regarding infant feeding. the sampling frame for the study covered eight rural localities in man, including kassiapleu, petit gbepleu, gbangbegouine-yati, kouitongouine 1, kouitongouine 2, gbouakpale, zele and guianle.results: a majority of the women (75.4 %) started taking supplements 6–12 m with only 49.5%, receiving medical supports. they thought that the ideal age to stop was 12–24 m. the most commonly used foods for supplementation were cereal porridge (88.5%), kokonde (45.4%) and placali (36.3%).conclusions: inappropriate supplementation practices were observed in nearly half of the children.