Assessment of infant feeding practices at a tertiary care hospital

Objective: to assess the practice and knowledge of mothers regarding breast feeding, complimentary feeding, and to find out socio-economic correlates of feeding practices. methods: a cross sectional survey conducted at paediatric department of liaquat university hospital (luh) from jan-dec 2008. during that period 500 mothers with children less than 24 months were included. infant feeding patterns were assessed in relation to recommendations and household socio-economic factors by an interview technique. results: out of 500 mothers, 8.4% started exclusive breast feeding (ebf) while pre-lacteal use was seen in 31.6%. regarding the duration 52.2% mothers continued breast feeding for 2 years. median duration of ebf was 3.5 months. it was seen that 60% of the 0-5 month-old infants breastfed 8 or more times per day. however, exclusiveness of breast feeding decreased from 60% at (0-2 months) to 40% (3-5 months). majority 64.2% were poor and 61.5% had no education. there is a statistically significant difference in feeding practices of educated and uneducated (p < 0.0001) and also in poor and middle class mothers (p <0.0003). regarding, age of their last born babies, 180 babies were under 6 months, and 320 were 6 to 23 months of age. the knowledge about complimentary feeding (cf) was inadequate. around 21% of 2-3 months old babies received complementary food and 19% of 6-8 month-olds were only breastfed. in 78% mothers cf was advised by family members while in 23% mothers by doctors. conclusion: exclusive breastfeeding was not maintained upto recommended age of 6 months. knowledge about cf was lacking in the mothers. regarding, mothers' education and socioeconomic conditions, a positive correlation was noted with feeding practices.