Non-exclusive breast feeding and its factors in the first 6-month life of infants among mother-infant pairs of 6–12 months in Debre Tabor town, Northwest Ethiopia, 2019: community-based cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: Non-exclusive breastfeeding is becoming a major cause of infant and child morbidity and mortality in developing countries including Ethiopia. OBJECTIVE: To assess the prevalence of non-exclusive breastfeeding and its factors in the first 6 months life of infants among mother-infant pairs of 6–12 months in Debre Tabor Town, Northwest Ethiopia, 2019. METHODS: A Community based cross-sectional study was conducted among 860 mother-infant pairs of 6–12 months in Debre Tabor Town, from March 1–30/2019. To select study participants cluster sampling technique was employed. Data were entered into EPI info version 7.2.0.1 and exported to SPSS window version 20 for analysis. Binary and multivariable logistic regression was used to see the association between dependent and independent variables. The odds' ratio with a 95% confidence interval was computed. RESULTS: The prevalence of non-exclusive breastfeeding of mothers to their infants within the first 6 months was found to be 39.8% (95% CI: 36.6–43.0). Mothers whose husbands had no formal education [(Adjusted odds ratio AOR = 6.60 [95%CI: 4.14, 10.41)], primary education (AOR = 4.30 [95% CI: 2.62, 7.20]), Mothers governmental employed (AOR = 8.20 [95% CI: 5.191, 12.940]), daily laborer (AOR = 1.70 [95% CI: 1.01, 2.90]), merchant mothers (AOR = 0.44 [95% CI: 0.35, 0.90]), and Mothers who had no post-natal care follow up for current baby in health service (AOR = 2.40 [95% CI: 1.56, 3.76]) were significantly associated with outcome. CONCLUSION: and Recommendations: High proportion of mothers practiced Early Initiation of Complementary feeding within the first 6 months. Husbands had no formal education, primary education maternal governmental employed, daily laborer, merchant, and mothers who had no post-natal follow up where were found to be a predictors variable. Hence,; it is better to increase annual leave for delivered mothers, improve awareness of husbands towards benefits of introducing complementary feeding timely, and advise mothers to improve post-natal period follow up.