Abstract

Dr. Muhammad Atif*, Dr. Areesha Seemab and Dr. Muhammad Nabeel Akbar

ABSTRACT

Background: Many kids in rural communities of developing countries die of malnutrition because of lack of knowledge, resources and sure misconceptions regarding weaning in mothers that result in low quality weaning foods and improper feeding practices. Weaning is that the starting of solid food in infant’s diet World Health Organization is consuming milk to satisfy his biological process needs. Breast milk could be a sensible supply of nutrition for the first six months of child’s life, but then again weaning is additionally essential because the kid is within the growing stage. Objectives: Current study elaborate the Knowledge, Attitude, Perception and Practices of mothers about weaning foods. Methodology: Cross-sectional Study was conducted among the mothers of infants aging from six months to twelve months at Pediatric Outpatient Department, Jinnah Hospital Lahore from January-2017 to March-2017. 100 mothers were surveyed for their Knowledge, Attitude and Practices about weaning. Informed consent was taken and required information was collected by developing a structural questionnaire. Data was analyzed using SPSS Version 23.0 Results: Out of 100 surveyed mothers, 93 mothers knew about weaning and 7 mothers did not. 68 (68%) mothers were from rural areas, out of which 22 (32%) had good, 21 (29%) had average and 25 (37%) had poor knowledge about weaning foods, and 32 (32%) mothers were from urban area, out of which 19 (60.5%) had good, 10 (32.5%) had average and 3 (7%) had poor knowledge about weaning foods. From urban background 13 (41%) mothers used to feed their child less than 4-6 times a day, 18 (57%) mothers used to feed their child 4-6 times a day, 1 (2.5%) mother used to feed her child more than 4-6 times a day. 86.6% of mothers from urban areas started weaning their child at 6 months of age while 43.1% mothers started weaning at this age from rural areas. Conclusion: In our study, we found that knowledge, attitude and practices of weaning in mothers from urban areas are better than mothers from rural areas owing to low literacy and low socioeconomic status of mothers from rural background. Lack of resources and higher number of children at young age are also contributing factors in poor knowledge and practices of weaning in mothers living in rural areas.