Abstract

Dr. Uzma, Dr. Zumer Abdul Khaliq* and Dr. Amna Asad

ABSTRACT

Background: Many children in rural communities of developing countries die of malnutrition due to lack of knowledge, resources and certain misconceptions about weaning in mothers which result in low quality weaning foods and improper feeding practices. Objectives: To evaluate the Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of mothers about weaning foods and their impact on child feeding practices. 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 10-03-2017 to 29-03-2017. 169 mothers were surveyed for their Knowledge, Attitude and Practices about weaning and weaning foods. 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 169 surveyed mothers, 163 mothers knew about weaning and 6 mothers did not. 116 (68.64%) mothers were from rural areas, out of which 40 (30.5%) had good, 33 (28.4%) had average and 43 (37.1%) had poor knowledge about weaning foods, and 53 (31.36%) mothers were from urban area, out of which 32 (60.4%) had good, 17 (32.1%) had average and 4 (7.5%) had poor knowledge about weaning foods. From urban background 22 (41.5%) mothers used to feed their child less than 4-6 times a day, 30 (56.6%) mothers used to feed their child 4-6 times a day, 1 (1.9%) 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.