Barriers and facilitators of child-feeding practice in a small sample of individuals from Gozamin District, Northwest of Ethiopia: a qualitative study

BACKGROUND: The first 1000 days is “window of opportunity” for nutrition and vital for physical growth, brain development and the immune system. None of previous studies explored qualitatively child-feeding practices in the developing countries like Ethiopia. The aim of the study was to explore barriers and facilitators of child-feeding practices in Gozamin District, Northwest Ethiopia. METHODS: A qualitative study was conducted by using 12 in-depth interviews and 4 Focus Group Discussions (n = 32) from Feb. 15/2016 – March 10/ 2016 in eight Kebeles. Purposive sampling technique was used to recruit the participants. The quality of the research findings was checked by using credibility, dependability, transferability and conformability. Data were analyzed using qualitative data analysis software package Atlas ti-7. RESULTS: Early initiation of breast-feeding and complementary feeding, exclusive breast-feeding, minimum meal frequency and minimum dietary diversity were the emerged theme in the study. Breastfeeding up to 2 years and above and timely initiation of a complementary feeding were commonly good practice in the area. Dietary diversity, discarding colostrums, pre-lacteal feeding like butter and bottle-feeding were the commonly harmful practices in the area. The most frequently mentioned barriers of child feeding were socio-cultural influences, traditional community practices, workload and poverty. CONCLUSIONS: Most of the children were suffered from harmful child feeding practices such as pre-lacteal feeding, discarding colostrums and bottle-feeding. Child dietary diversity and complementary food preparation were the major problem in the study area. Therefore, supports on complementary food preparation and diversity food should be given more attention to enhance child-feeding practice in rural Ethiopia.