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Complementary Feeding in Western Cape, South Africa: Identifying Suboptimal Practices and Potential Targets for Intervention

Introduction Appropriate complementary feeding is important for the normal growth and development of children. This study aimed to describe the complementary feeding practices and identify suboptimal practices that would be possible targets for intervention to improve practices among mothers of infa...

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Autores principales: Ikobah, Joanah M, Taminiau, Jan, Nel, Etienne, Fewtrell, Mary
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Cureus 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10625165/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37927666
http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.46512
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author Ikobah, Joanah M
Taminiau, Jan
Nel, Etienne
Fewtrell, Mary
author_facet Ikobah, Joanah M
Taminiau, Jan
Nel, Etienne
Fewtrell, Mary
author_sort Ikobah, Joanah M
collection PubMed
description Introduction Appropriate complementary feeding is important for the normal growth and development of children. This study aimed to describe the complementary feeding practices and identify suboptimal practices that would be possible targets for intervention to improve practices among mothers of infants aged six weeks to one year in Western Cape Province, South Africa. Methods This hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted at the emergency unit of the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health of Tygerberg Academic Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa, between May 2017 and June 2017 among 110 mothers and their infants. Infants with minor ailments were included in the study. Patients requiring hospital admissions or severely ill infants requiring oxygen or ventilation, premature babies, and children with congenital anomalies were excluded from the study. The relationship between sociodemographic variables and the time of commencement of complementary food was described. Results The mean age of infants was 6.4±3.2 months, while the mean age of mothers was 27.6±5.5 years. On average, the age at introduction of complementary food to infants was 2.17±1.50 months. Among the complementary foods given to infants less than six months of age, cereals were the most commonly introduced (76.5%), while the least were sweet beverages (5.9%). Maternal age ≤ 34 years and first-born infant were significantly associated with early commencement of complementary food before six months of age (p=0.042 and p=0.032, respectively). Conclusion This study indicated that commencement of complementary food as early as two months of age with the use of non-nutritious and inappropriate food remains a significant problem in the region. There is a need for further education of mothers on appropriate complementary feeding practices given the importance of complementary feeding practices to the optimum growth and development of children.
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spelling pubmed-106251652023-11-05 Complementary Feeding in Western Cape, South Africa: Identifying Suboptimal Practices and Potential Targets for Intervention Ikobah, Joanah M Taminiau, Jan Nel, Etienne Fewtrell, Mary Cureus Pediatrics Introduction Appropriate complementary feeding is important for the normal growth and development of children. This study aimed to describe the complementary feeding practices and identify suboptimal practices that would be possible targets for intervention to improve practices among mothers of infants aged six weeks to one year in Western Cape Province, South Africa. Methods This hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted at the emergency unit of the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health of Tygerberg Academic Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa, between May 2017 and June 2017 among 110 mothers and their infants. Infants with minor ailments were included in the study. Patients requiring hospital admissions or severely ill infants requiring oxygen or ventilation, premature babies, and children with congenital anomalies were excluded from the study. The relationship between sociodemographic variables and the time of commencement of complementary food was described. Results The mean age of infants was 6.4±3.2 months, while the mean age of mothers was 27.6±5.5 years. On average, the age at introduction of complementary food to infants was 2.17±1.50 months. Among the complementary foods given to infants less than six months of age, cereals were the most commonly introduced (76.5%), while the least were sweet beverages (5.9%). Maternal age ≤ 34 years and first-born infant were significantly associated with early commencement of complementary food before six months of age (p=0.042 and p=0.032, respectively). Conclusion This study indicated that commencement of complementary food as early as two months of age with the use of non-nutritious and inappropriate food remains a significant problem in the region. There is a need for further education of mothers on appropriate complementary feeding practices given the importance of complementary feeding practices to the optimum growth and development of children. Cureus 2023-10-05 /pmc/articles/PMC10625165/ /pubmed/37927666 http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.46512 Text en Copyright © 2023, Ikobah et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Pediatrics
Ikobah, Joanah M
Taminiau, Jan
Nel, Etienne
Fewtrell, Mary
Complementary Feeding in Western Cape, South Africa: Identifying Suboptimal Practices and Potential Targets for Intervention
title Complementary Feeding in Western Cape, South Africa: Identifying Suboptimal Practices and Potential Targets for Intervention
title_full Complementary Feeding in Western Cape, South Africa: Identifying Suboptimal Practices and Potential Targets for Intervention
title_fullStr Complementary Feeding in Western Cape, South Africa: Identifying Suboptimal Practices and Potential Targets for Intervention
title_full_unstemmed Complementary Feeding in Western Cape, South Africa: Identifying Suboptimal Practices and Potential Targets for Intervention
title_short Complementary Feeding in Western Cape, South Africa: Identifying Suboptimal Practices and Potential Targets for Intervention
title_sort complementary feeding in western cape, south africa: identifying suboptimal practices and potential targets for intervention
topic Pediatrics
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10625165/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37927666
http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.46512
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