Infant and young child feeding practices among mothers of children aged 6 months -2 years in a rural area of Haryana: A qualitative study

BACKGROUND: India, a low-middle income and a developing country is combating with a triple burden of malnutrition with a very cost-effective measure, infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices. But there are a lot of challenges in its implementation which need to be catered. The objective of the present qualitative study was to assess IYCF practices among mothers of children aged 6 months to 2 years in a rural area of Haryana. METHOD: Qualitative study was carried out among mothers of children 6 months–2 years in villages of Ballabgarh block of Haryana using focussed group discussion (FGD) and in-depth interview methods. All recordings of FGDs and IDIs were transcribed into verbatim and codes were generated. Thematic analysis of the transcript of in-depth interview and FGD was performed with the help of Doc Tools in MS Word 2016. RESULTS: The mothers had good knowledge about breastfeeding, importance of colostrum, and weaning practices of infants and children of less than 2 years. Though there is evidence of some cultural misbeliefs, most of the taboos are obsolete now. There was a knowledge gap regarding initiation and composition of complementary feeding practices. The awareness about food diversity, effects of junk food, and recommended complementary feeding practices was less. CONCLUSION: There is need of creating awareness among mothers regarding importance of IYCF practices to reduce infant and under 5 mortality in rural area.