Study of Infant and Young Child Feeding Practices in a Rural Area in District Yamunanagar

Recent scientific evidence reveals that over 2/3rd of the deaths among children under five years of age are associated with inappropriate feeding practices and occur during the first year of life. Improving infant and young child feeding practices in children 0–23 months of age is therefore critical to improved nutrition, health and development of children.

To study the feeding practices in infants and children under 2 years. To study the influence of maternal education on the feeding practices. This study on 150 Women with children less than 2 years of age in the rural area of district Yamunagar in Haryana reveals 61.2% of the infants were given colostrum. Mothers who were illiterate were less likely to give colostrum when compared to literate mothers (p<0.05). Giving Prelacteal feeds like jaggery water, honey and breast feeding by some lactating woman was practiced for first three days of child birth. Only 48% of the infants were fed on breast milk within one hour of birth. Only 52.2% infants were exclusively breast fed upto 6 months. In 40.8% of the infants complementary foods were started before 6 months. Hence this study shows that literate mothers are more likely to feed colostrum to the newborns,thereby highlighting the importance of maternal education in understanding the protective value of colostrum. Improving infant and young child feeding practices in children is therefore critical to improved nutrition,health and development of children