Status of Infant and Young Child Feeding Practices With Special Emphasis on Breast Feeding in an Urban Area of Meerut

Infant feeding practices comprising of both the breastfeeding as well as complementary feeding have major role in determining the nutritional status of the child. Worldwide, it is estimated that only 34.8% of infants are exclusively breastfed for the first 6 months of life, the majority receiving some other food or fluid in the early months.The first two year of life provide a critical window of opportunity for ensuring children’s appropriate growth and development through optimal feeding. Optimal breast feeding could prevent 13% of deaths occurring in children less than 5 year of age globally, while appropriate complementary feeding practice would results in an additional 6% reduction in under-five mortality. ObjectiveTo study infant and young child feeding practices with special reference to breast feeding in children between 636 month of age. Materials And MethodsThis cross sectional study was carried out in an urban population of Meerut city, in children between 6 to 36 months of age. Assuming the prevalence of breast feeding to be 50% the sample size was taken as 400 children. Information regarding child rearing practices was collected by interviewing mother by house to house visit on predesigned and pretested Performa. Data was analysed and statistically evaluated. ResultsThe study showed that 15.0% mothers started breastfeeding within 1 hr of birth, 29.8% started complementary feeding at 6 month, while 5.3% exclusively breastfed for six month duration. 79.6% were given food from four or more group. Minimum meal frequency was adequate in 43.4% while minimum acceptable diet was 37.7%. ConclusionPresent study revealed very poor infant and young child feeding practices in urban area of Meerut.