Child Feeding Practices of Childbearing Mothers and Their Household Food Insecurity in a Coastal Region of Bangladesh

Abstract

The current condition of ensuring WHO-recommended newborn and young child feeding practice is becoming a challenge in many developing nations, particularly in places where family food security is threatened. Because many households in underdeveloped nations frequently face acute food shortage due to poverty, optimal child nutrition is jeopardized. The purpose of this study was to analyze the child feeding behaviors of mothers with children aged 0-24 months and to investigate their household food insecurity in a coastal region of Bangladesh, Suborno Char (one of Noakhali District’s coastal neighbourhoods) was studied from October 2019 to April 2020. In this study, a cross-sectional survey with multistage sampling technique was employed, and Suborno Char of Noakhlai district was purposely sampled of 400 women and their children aged 0-24 months. Data were obtained using a standard questionnaire and were analyzed using statistical functions in SPSS 20.0.0. Exclusive breastfeeding 53.5%, timely supplemental feeding 75.5%, and feeding children meals from homemade, canned/formula/fortified, both homemade and canned, milk these 4 food groups were at 22.2%. The moms' education level was strongly associated with their child feeding practices. Mothers from food insecure homes were less likely to exclusively breastfeed than mothers from food secure households after drawing interpretation of univariate & multivariate analysis of variables crude odds ratio (COR) and adjusted odds ratio (AOR) and confidence interval (CI) (COR .233 at 95% CI 0.083, .655 and AOR .478 at 95% CI 0.133, 1.713). Similar outcomes were seen for early complementary feeding and minimal dietary diversification of children. In conclusion, this study discovered a less dietary inclusion trend of child feeding practices among moms (0-24 months childbearing) in Bangladesh’s coastal region.

How is parental education associated with infant and young child feeding in Bangladesh? A systematic literature review

“…We found that parental education was both positively and negatively associated with IYCF, depending on the different IYCF components. For example, comparing the reference category with others, parental education, in general, was found to be positively associated with complementary feeding status (5,20,50,53,58,61,67,71,(74)(75)(76)(77), whereas negatively associated with breastfeeding related indicators (6, 21,48,51,52,57,64,65,67,72,73). However, some studies also found positive association between parental education and breastfeeding related indicators (20,49,54,55,60,63,69,70).…”

“…Six studies were conducted at the sub-district level, and one at the district level (Rajshahi district). Among the included studies, the smallest sample size was 400 (20) and the largest sample size was 34,811 (61). The characteristics of the included studies have been summarized in Table 1.…”

“…Despite expected positive in uence of parental education on their IYCF practices, existing evidence from literature shows some incongruous association between parental education and their IYCF practices in Bangladesh. For example, Al Mamun et al (2022) (20) found that exclusive breastfeeding was higher among mothers with high educational attainments compared to illiterate mothers whereas (21) found that highly educated mothers had lower odds of exclusive breastfeeding than their counterparts. Furthermore, the practices of providing breast milk or milk products and ensuring at least four food groups and minimum meal frequency among mothers who completed at least secondary education level remained the same (47.5%) both in 2007 and 2017 (14,22) even though the fact that maternal literacy rate has improved during this decade.…”

“…Meanwhile, Al Mamun et al (2022)(20) found both positive and negative associations among groups with different educational attainment as compared with the reference group (illiterate mothers). For example, the odds of timely initiation of complementary feeding was higher among mothers with primary (OR = 1.18, 95% CI= 0.49, 2.84), graduate (OR = 1.35, 95% CI= 0.12, 14.80), and Madrasha (religious education system) education (OR = 2.91, 95% CI= 0.38, 22.34), whereas lower among the mothers with SSC/Dakhil (secondary level) (OR = 0.71, 95% CI= 0.29, 1.76) and HSC/Alim (higher secondary level) (OR = 0.65, 95% CI= 0.10, 4.11) education.…”

Implementation and maintenance of infant dietary diversity in Zimbabwe: contribution of food and water insecurity

“…Of the three dimensions of FI investigated, low food availability & quality, but not poor food access, nor household shocks, was associated with MIDD implementation and maintenance. Negative associations between FI and various infant feeding practices have been reported in Ghana [29], Ethiopia [50][51][52], Bangladesh [32,33,35,53], India [27], and Kenya [36]. Interestingly, in Mongolia, household FI was not associated with MIDD [54].…”