MATERNAL AND INFANT YOUNG CHILD FEEDING PRACTICES AMONG NURSING MOTHERS

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MATERNAL AND INFANT YOUNG CHILD FEEDING PRACTICES AMONG NURSING MOTHERS

Abstract

Nutrition plays a major role in maternal and child health and it is widely recognized that optimum nutrition in early life is the foundation for long-term health. A healthy maternal dietary pattern, along with adequate maternal body composition, metabolism and placental nutrient supply, reduces the risk of maternal, fetal and long-term effects in the offspring. While undernutrition is mainly an issue of low-income countries, malnutrition, due to poor quality diet, is becoming a global health problem.

Preconceptional counseling of women of childbearing age should spread awareness of the importance of maternal nutrition before and during pregnancy and should promote a cultural lifestyle change, in favor of a healthy weight before conceiving and balanced healthy diet with high-quality foods consumption. Supplementation and/or fortification can make a contribution when recommended micronutrient intakes are difficult to be met through food alone. In industrialized countries, although a balanced diet is generally accessible, a switch to a high-fat and low-quality diet has led to inadequate vitamin and mineral intake during pregnancy. Evidence do not support a routine multiple micronutrient supplementation but highlights the importance of an individualized approach, in order to recognize nutritional deficiencies of individuals, thus leading to healthful dietary practices prior to conception and eventually to tailored supplementation.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the study

Maternal and child undernutrition remain pervasive and damaging in low and middle-income countries. Globally, more than a third of child deaths and above 10 % of the disease burden are attributable to maternal and child undernutrition. Additionally, early undernutrition has long lasting effects on physical as well as cognitive growth of the child.

Adequate nutrition during infancy and early childhood is essential to ensure the growth, health and development of children to their full potential. Hence, the first two years of life provide a critical window of opportunity for prevention of growth faltering and undernutrition through optimal feeding. Improving infant feeding practices especially for children younger than two years of age should therefore be a high global priority

World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) set a global strategy for optimal infant and young child feeding (IYCF) [8]. The strategy recommends the initiation of breastfeeding within one hour of birth, exclusively breastfed for the first six months, after which nutritiously appropriate, adequate, and safe complementary foods should be introduced along with continuing breastfeeding up to two years and beyond. Improving IYCF practices based on this recommendation when children are well and sick is important to ameliorate undernutrition and its consequences.

Infant and young child feeding practice is suboptimal throughout the world [10], especially the late initiation of breastfeeding, prelacteal feeding, early or late introduction of optimal complementary foods, giving poor quality, quantity and unhygienic complementary food, and using a bottle to fed the child are the common practices in developing countries

Statement of the problem

There may have been previous researches in this subject. This work gives further explanations and analysis in maternal and infant young child feeding practices among nursing mothers