Abstract:  Background: Optimal infant and young child feeding during the first two years of life is essential to optimum child development and health. While the link between feeding practices and child health outcomes is well documented, little is known about the determinants of these feeding practices in Indonesia. The purpose of this study was to better understand factors associated with appropriate child feeding among Indonesian children 6–23 months of age.

Methods: Interviewers conducted interviews with 1498 mothers of children 6–23 months of age to identify practices. Measures of feeding practices included dietary diversity, meal frequency, and minimum acceptable diet. Multivariate logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with dietary diversity and separately with meal frequency.

Results: After adjusting for covariates, increased maternal education was associated with improved dietary diversity. Age of child [OR=1.11], knowledge of stunting [OR=1.80], and having ever received nutrition information [OR=1.89] were also associated with greater dietary diversity. Wealth [OR=0.86] and age of child [OR=0.92] were inversely associated with meal frequency. Maternal education, age of child, being a male child, knowledge of stunting, and having received nutrition information increased the odds of the child consuming a minimum acceptable diet.

Conclusion: Increasing maternal education, knowledge of stunting, and knowledge of nutrition may improve dietary diversity while poverty alleviation has the potential to improve minimum meal frequency. These findings corroborate similar studies and confirm the importance of government efforts that help girls stay in school, improve families’ understanding of nutrition, and reduce poverty.

Keywords:  Dietary diversity, Meal frequency, Nutrition, Children, Indonesia.

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Abstract: Objectives: The aim of the study is to evaluate the use of local flours in supplementary feeding for 6 to 24 month old children in relation to their nutritional status in Abidjan.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted on 480 mother-child couples in twelve maternal and child protection centers located in four municipalities in Abidjan. Questionnaires focused on the economic characteristics of mothers, the frequency of use of local flours, sources of local flours, ingredients used for flour production. The local composite flours mainly consumed by the children were sampled for biochemical analysis.

Results: Our of the 480 mothers, 73% had an income-generating activity and 27% had no activity, 10% of them were students. About 13% of the mothers with income-generating activities use only local flours, 10% of them mainly use industrial flours and 50% alternately use local flours and industrial flours. All mothers used cereals for flour production, 1% of the mothers used cassava and 98.54% used soya flour as supplement. The local flour mainly consumed, "Anango baka" with two variants, was unbalanced as far as its nutrient composition is concerned. The nutritional status of the children surveyed showed that stunting was the most widespread form of malnutrition with a prevalence of 17.9%.

Conclusion: The three local composite flours used by the mothers showed a poor nutritional value. A high rate of chronic malnutrition has been reported for 6 to 24 month old children visiting maternal and child protection centers located in Abidjan.

Keywords:  Complementary feeding, Child nutrition, Malnutrition status, flours.

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Abstract:  Background: Child malnutrition is highest in Sub-Saharan Africa. Over 45% of children in Cameroon die each year from malnutrition-related causes, most of which are preventable. Exclusive breastfeeding is a well-acknowledged and cost-effective intervention against malnutrition-related illnesses in children. However, the practice remains low in Cameroon. This study explored perceptions of mothers, care givers and key informants on infant feeding in Cameroon, and barriers to exclusive breastfeeding.

Methods: A qualitative methodology was used, comprising key informant interviews and focus group discussions with nursing mothers, grandmothers and health workers; in one urban and one rural area in Cameroon. Participants were selected using convenience, purposive and snowball sampling methods. Data were analysed using thematic analysis.

Results: Cameroonian mothers were supportive of breastfeeding. However, knowledge of exclusive breastfeeding and its benefits was poor. Mothers expressed doubts about its feasibility and showed concerns about satisfying their babies’ feeding and health needs. Barriers included factors which either affected women’s abilities to breastfeed or their babies’ satisfaction, family influences, other responsibilities, cultural and societal factors, and lack of support from the healthcare system.

Conclusions: This study highlighted a sizeable gap between mothers’ lived experiences and infant feeding recommendations. Living in rural areas was an added disadvantage. Developing effective strategies to increase exclusive breastfeeding rates requires that mothers’ needs be understood and that influencing factors be addressed. Supportive environments are also required to promote and protect the rights and abilities of mothers to breastfeed exclusively.

Keywords:  Breastfeeding, exclusive breastfeeding, EBF, infant feeding, perceptions, barriers, mothers, developing countries, Cameroon.

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Abstract: Background: Behaviours around infants feeding influence both nutritive value and the detrimental effects of the infant feeding.

Aim: The study aimed to determine infant feeding practices with implication to child’s oral health and examine the related socio-demographic factors.

Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study among mothers of the infants who were attending RCH clinics in suburban areas of northwest Tanzania. Cluster sampling technique was used to obtain the participants and a structured questionnaire was used to interview the mothers. Frequency distributions and cross-tabulations were used for analysis and reported as proportions and identified differences between the comparative socio-demographic categories.

Results: Study involved 213 mother-infant pairs; infants’ mean age was 7.22 ± 3.48 months and 53.1% were female babies. Almost all (94.6 %) the infants were breastfed and 75.3% of infants under six months of age were exclusively breastfeeding. In infants age older than six months, 32.6% of mothers reported to have initiated complementary food before the baby turned six months and that sugar sweetened foods were mostly used (68.1%) complementary foods. Higher proportion of mothers who had secondary school education or beyond (43.4%) reported to have initiated complementary food before the recommended age than their counterparts. Mothers who were employed reported to mostly (74.5%) use sugar sweetened complementary foods as compared to unemployed mothers.

Conclusion: Infants of this community were mostly breastfed and initiated complementary feeding earlier than recommended time. Employed mothers and those with secondary education or above tended to have unfavorably infant feeding practices than their comparative groups.

Keywords: Breastfeeding, complementary foods, early childhood caries.

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