Breast feeding practice and infant nutritional status
Among the studied mother-infant pair 61.1 % mother were shown
to initiate breastfeeding within 1 hour of child birth, while the rest of
the mother (38.1 %) did not do that (Table 3). The study showed
that 45 % mother breastfeed their child exclusively for the first six
month, whereas 90 % mother gives breast milk to their child on
demand. 97.8% of studied mothers were shown to have a wish to
continue the breastfeeding up to 2 years of infant’s age. Only 21%
of studied mothers were shown to give pre-lacteal feed. Honey was
the most common among the pre-lacteal feeds. Analysis of the
association of exclusive breast feeding practice with infant
nutritional status were shown that among 25 exclusively breastfed
infant only 2 were found with wasting; while in the case of 33 nonexclusively
breastfed infant the number was 6 (Table 4). Using
Waterlow classification, weight and height of each infant was
compared with the reference infant’s weight and height with same
age. The highest percentages (26.7 %) of nutrition related
complication was growth retardation which was among nonexclusively
breastfed infant and the second highest was both
wasting (20%). Among exclusively breast fed infant only 16 % were
stunted, whereas only 8% and 4 % were wasted and both stunted
and wasted respectively. In the case of greater than 30 years of
maternal age group, 52.6% infants were stunted among
nonexclusively breastfed which was the highest percentage both in
exclusively and non-exclusively breastfed infant. The percentages of
all form of malnutrition related complication were higher among
non-exclusively breast fed infant than exclusively breastfed infant.
The crosstab analysis were shown that all of the association in both
maternal age groups was non-significant (p > 0.05), except only the
association of wasting with breastfeeding practice (p< 0.05).
However the odd and risk (Table 5) of all types of malnutrition
related complication were higher among non-exclusively breastfed
infant, but was not found statistically significant (1 was included in
the 95% CI).