Assessing the Infant Feeding Practices among Lactating Mothers in Ekiti East Local Government Area, Ekiti State, Nigeria.

The objective of this study was to assess the infant feeding practices among lactating mothers with children aged 6-24 months old attending six Primary Health Care (PHC) facilities in Ekiti East Local Government Area of Ekiti State, Nigeria. This study was cross-sectional in design while questionnaires and interview methods were used to gather information from the respondents. Two hundred mothers attending post-natal clinics were randomly selected. Data were analyzed statistically using frequency, percentages and correlation. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20 was used for the analysis and p- values <0.05 was considered statistically significant. The result showed that majority (70.5%) of respondents were between the age of 21-30 years and 90.5% had secondary school education and above. The result further indicated that 99% of children assessed were breast fed, 64% of the mother-initiated breast feeding within one hour of delivery, 79% breast feed their babies on demand while 26.5% of mothers bottle fed their children. More than one- third (35.5%) of the respondents introduced complementary foods before 6 months while 62.5% of mothers weaned their infants with pap prepared from sorghum, millet and guinea corn. The results further showed that majority (58.5%) of the respondents wash their hands before preparing foods as part of hygiene practices in food preparation. Correlation between level of education and breastfeeding initiation, breastfeeding frequency and age of introduction of food were positive with 0.009, 0.104 and 0.089 respectively. Infant feeding practices is still poor among the mother studied with bottle feeding remaining a big challenge. Therefore, awareness creation on the benefits of good infant feeding practices should be intensified.