Abstract:
Adequate nutrition during the infancy and early childhood (first 2 years of a child) is
essential to ensure the growth, development and overall health of children to their full
potential. Complementary feeding is the process starting when breast milk alone or
infant formula alone is no longer sufficient to meet the nutritional requirements of
infants, and therefore other food and liquids are needed, along with breast milk or a
breast-milk substitute. This study aimed to identify the practices and examine the
knowledge of mothers of 6 to 24 months children in Male’ regarding complementary
feeding and the factors that influence it. The study consisted of interviewing 90
participants who are mothers of children of 6 to 24 months of age registered at
“Dhamana Veshi” using a semi-structured questionnaire. The study revealed that a
high percentage of the mothers were aware of the appropriate duration of exclusive
breastfeeding (93%) and complementary feeding (96%). However, only 58% of the
mothers correctly practiced exclusive breastfeeding and 63% initiated complementary
feeding at the recommended time. Hence there was a large gap between the
knowledge of mothers and actual practice which was influenced by a number of
factors. Socioeconomic factors that significantly affected both the level of knowledge
and practices include the type of family, education level of the mother and number of
children in the family. Factors such as lactation failure and working mothers largely
contributed to early initiation of complementary feeding. Flexible working hours,
increased guidance and support by the health care providers and better methods of
information dissemination needs to be established to improve the current situation.
