Impact of Colostrum and Exclusive Breast Feeding Practice on Health among Under Two Years Children in the Rural Areas of Bangladesh

Md. Nannur Rahman; Nargis Akter; Obaidur Rashid; Shahnaj Parvin

Volume : VII, Issue : III, March - 2018

Impact of Colostrum and Exclusive Breast Feeding Practice on Health among Under Two Years Children in the Rural Areas of Bangladesh

Md. Nannur Rahman, Nargis Akter, Obaidur Rashid, Shahnaj Parvin

Abstract :

The feeding practices during infancy are of critical importance for the growth and development of children. Recent studies have reported that wrong feeding practices are widely prevalent in the rural area. With this background, A cross sectional study was carried out to determine infant feeding practices and nutritional status of under–2 year’s children. The study variables were mother‘s occupation, education, sex and age of the baby, colostrum feeding, east feeding and weaning practices. Most of the Respondents were little bit literate but 23% were totally illiterate. Almost 99% respondents were housewife. However, 67% respondent have the knowledge on colostrum but only 30 respondents started east feeding within one hour after birth. Only 40% respondent provided exclusive east feeding for six months or above and 20% mother initiate extra food from one month. Using the indicator weight for age (W/A–Z score) and height for age (H/A–Z score) the growth performance of the children was measured. About 21.0%, 10.5% and 20.0% of the children were severely (–3 SD), moderately and mildly underweighted respectively. The prevalence of severe stunting (<–3 SD) were found to be 39.0%, while the prevalence of moderate, mild stunting and well–nourished were 22.0%, 15.0% and 24.0% respectively. About 81% colostrum feeding and 80% exclusively east feeder babies were well nourished. The P value of the correlation between colostrum feeding and under nutrition status of the children was 0.001, between colostrum feeding and stunting status was 0.003.