Time to initiate complementary feeding and associated factors among mothers with children aged 6–24 months in Tahtay Maichew district, northern Ethiopia

OBJECTIVE: In Ethiopia, only 51% of the infants start complementary feeding on time. Therefore this study is aimed to determine the time to initiate complementary feeding and associated factors among mothers with children aged 6–24 months in Tahtay Maichew district, northern Ethiopia. A retrospective follow up study was conducted among 639 mothers who had children aged 6–24 months. Bi-variable and multi-variable Cox regressions were conducted and statistical significance was declared at P-value < 0.05 and 95% confidence level. RESULTS: The median age for the initiation into complementary feeding was 6.00 months. Being government employee [AHR = 1.67, 95% CI 1.10–2.53], having educated husband [AHR = 2.08, 95% CI 1.22–3.86], birth preparedness [AHR = 3.74, 95% CI 1.49–9.94], growth monitoring [AHR = 5.79, 95% CI 2.60–12.88], ability to know exact time to introduce complementary feeding [AHR = 4.93, 95% CI 1.94–12.50], and paternal support [AHR = 4.99, 95% CI 2.02–12.34] were significantly associated with the time to initiate into complementary feeding. Therefore, establishing breast feeding centres at work place and extending maternity leave for reasonable months are important to improve timely initiation into complementary feeding. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s13104-019-4061-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.