Infant and Young Child Feeding Practices in Three Communities in Obio-Akpor Local Government Area

Optimal infant and young child feeding is the key to their optimal growth and development. This paper aimed to evaluate infant and young child feeding practices among mothers in Alakahia, Choba and Aluu communities in ObioAkpor Local Government Area (LGA). This was a cross sectional community based study conducted in Alakahia, Choba and Aluu communities in Obio-Akpor LGA in Port Harcourt Metropolis between January to April 2014. A 22 itemed structured questionnaire was administered to mothers whose last babies were between 0 to 23 months old. Questions asked covered infant and young child feeding practices and socio-demographics. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 17 statistical software. Three hundred and sixty five mother child pairs participated in this study; mean age of mothers (years) and babies (months) were 29.04±3.77SD and 8.688±7.33SD respectively. Three hundred and fifty five (97.2%) babies were breastfed. Exclusive breastfeeding rate before 4 months, between 4 to 6 months, at 6 months and after 6 months were 33.3%, 27.1%, 22.5% and 17.7% respectively. Two hundred and four (55.9%) babies received complementary feeds before 6 months of age. Majority (80%) of the mothers who stopped breastfeeding before the survey, stopped when their babies were between 6 to 12 months old. Ninety seven (26.6%) babies were bottle fed. Social class of parents had no relationship with exclusive breastfeeding (p=0.498) or bottle feeding (p=0.792). Infant and young child feeding practices among mothers in Alakahia, Choba and Aluu communities were sub-optimal.