Infant Feeding Information, Attitudes and Practices: a Longitudinal Survey in Central Nepal

Background: Infant feeding is governed by environmental as well as cultural factors. Breastfeeding knowledge and attitudes are known to be associated with breastfeeding duration. This study investigated breastfeeding information, attitudes and supplementary feeding in the central hills district of N...

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Main Authors: Karkee, Rajendra, Lee, Andy, Khanal, Vishnu, Binns, Colin
Format: Journal Article
Published: BioMed Central 2014
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/36425
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author Karkee, Rajendra
Lee, Andy
Khanal, Vishnu
Binns, Colin
author_facet Karkee, Rajendra
Lee, Andy
Khanal, Vishnu
Binns, Colin
author_sort Karkee, Rajendra
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Background: Infant feeding is governed by environmental as well as cultural factors. Breastfeeding knowledge and attitudes are known to be associated with breastfeeding duration. This study investigated breastfeeding information, attitudes and supplementary feeding in the central hills district of Nepal.Methods: A community-based prospective cohort study of 701 pregnant women was conducted. Information on breastfeeding attitudes, feeding practices and supplementary feeding was sought from the cohort at 4 weeks, 12 weeks and 22 weeks postpartum through repeated interviews using validated questionnaires.Results: Average duration of intended breastfeeding was 28 months (SD 7.9) and average target time to introduce solid foods was 6.1 months (SD 1.2). About 80% of women reported their husband, mother/mother-in-law preferred breastfeeding. Eleven percent of the cohort said that breastfeeding was not enjoyable. At 12 weeks and 22 weeks after birth, about a quarter (24.8%) and half (52.8%) of the infants were introduced cow/buffalo milk, respectively, while only 6.3% and 13.4% of them were given infant formula. Overall, any breastfeeding rate remained high at over 98% throughout the follow up period.Conclusions: Breastfeeding attitudes were encouraging in this population. Breastfeeding was almost universal. Use of infant formula was quite low, whereas cow or buffalo milk appeared to be popular supplementary foods.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-364252017-09-13T15:23:30Z Infant Feeding Information, Attitudes and Practices: a Longitudinal Survey in Central Nepal Karkee, Rajendra Lee, Andy Khanal, Vishnu Binns, Colin Breastfeeding Feeding practice Attitude Nepal Background: Infant feeding is governed by environmental as well as cultural factors. Breastfeeding knowledge and attitudes are known to be associated with breastfeeding duration. This study investigated breastfeeding information, attitudes and supplementary feeding in the central hills district of Nepal.Methods: A community-based prospective cohort study of 701 pregnant women was conducted. Information on breastfeeding attitudes, feeding practices and supplementary feeding was sought from the cohort at 4 weeks, 12 weeks and 22 weeks postpartum through repeated interviews using validated questionnaires.Results: Average duration of intended breastfeeding was 28 months (SD 7.9) and average target time to introduce solid foods was 6.1 months (SD 1.2). About 80% of women reported their husband, mother/mother-in-law preferred breastfeeding. Eleven percent of the cohort said that breastfeeding was not enjoyable. At 12 weeks and 22 weeks after birth, about a quarter (24.8%) and half (52.8%) of the infants were introduced cow/buffalo milk, respectively, while only 6.3% and 13.4% of them were given infant formula. Overall, any breastfeeding rate remained high at over 98% throughout the follow up period.Conclusions: Breastfeeding attitudes were encouraging in this population. Breastfeeding was almost universal. Use of infant formula was quite low, whereas cow or buffalo milk appeared to be popular supplementary foods. 2014 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/36425 10.1186/1746-4358-9-14 BioMed Central fulltext
spellingShingle Breastfeeding
Feeding practice
Attitude
Nepal
Karkee, Rajendra
Lee, Andy
Khanal, Vishnu
Binns, Colin
Infant Feeding Information, Attitudes and Practices: a Longitudinal Survey in Central Nepal
title Infant Feeding Information, Attitudes and Practices: a Longitudinal Survey in Central Nepal
title_full Infant Feeding Information, Attitudes and Practices: a Longitudinal Survey in Central Nepal
title_fullStr Infant Feeding Information, Attitudes and Practices: a Longitudinal Survey in Central Nepal
title_full_unstemmed Infant Feeding Information, Attitudes and Practices: a Longitudinal Survey in Central Nepal
title_short Infant Feeding Information, Attitudes and Practices: a Longitudinal Survey in Central Nepal
title_sort infant feeding information, attitudes and practices: a longitudinal survey in central nepal
topic Breastfeeding
Feeding practice
Attitude
Nepal
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/36425