Food preferences during complimentary feeding period among nursing mothers attending immunization clinic at Massey street children’s hospital Lagos Island, Lagos state, Nigeria
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Date
2013
Authors
Ike, EC
Balogun, MR
Obidike, OR
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
East African Journal of Public Health
Abstract
Objective: Globally, malnutrition is the major cause of childhood mortality, being implicated in about 50% of all
deaths in children under the age of five. About two-thirds of these deaths occur in the first year of life with
inappropriate transition between breastfeeding and family diets being mostly implicated. This study was carried out
to ascertain the complementary food preferences of nursing mothers attending the immunization clinic at a
secondary health care facility in Lagos, Nigeria.
Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted from March to June 2011. A calculated sample size
of 252 nursing mothers was selected from the study population using systematic sampling technique. An
interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to obtain relevant data, which was analyzed using SPSS version
15.0.
Results: The respondents ranged in age from 18 to 42 years with a mean age of 28.7 years ( 4.8 SD). Majority
(59.5%) of the mothers had good understanding of what complementary feeding means yet most (41.5%) started
introducing other foods between the ages of 4 to 6 months. Most (41.3%) of the nursing mothers preferred plain pap
as the first complementary food and most of their babies (40.5%) ate commercial baby cereal more frequently than
other foods. There were statistically significant associations between respondents’ tribe and occupation and the age
of introducing other foods to a child (p < 0.05). Factors that were significantly associated with complementary food
preference included: influence of advice from family, friends, and hospital nurse; socio-cultural variables such as
belief and cost; father’s influence; mother’s work; child’s taste and medical condition such as diarrhoea (p < 0.05)
Conclusion: The nursing mothers did not give adequate nutritive complementary foods to their children. They
would therefore benefit from health education about the appropriate complementary diets and practices.
Description
Scholarly article
Keywords
Food preferences , Nursing mothers , Infants , Complimentary foods , Research Subject Categories::MEDICINE::Social medicine
Citation
Ike EC, Balogun MR, Obidike OR. Food preferences during complimentary feeding period among nursing mothers attending immunization clinic at Massey street children’s hospital Lagos Island, Lagos state, Nigeria. East African Journal of Public Health 2013;10(1): 282-292.