Infant and young child feeding practice among mothers of children age 6 to 23 months in Debrelibanos district, North Showa zone, Oromia region, Ethiopia

BACKGROUND: Inappropriate infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practice is the leading cause of malnutrition in children. Data is needed to identify children at risk of poor feeding practice and to target interventions to improve IYCF practices. Therefore, this study aimed to assess IYCF practice and associated factors among mothers of children age 6 to 23 months in Debrelibanos district, north Showa zone, Oromia region, Ethiopia. METHOD: A community-based cross-sectional study design was conducted among 380 mothers of children age 6 to 23 months from March 1 to April 5, 2019. A simple random sampling technique was used to select the respondents. Data was collected using a structured interviewer-administered questionnaire that had been pretested. The data was entered into Epi-Data 3.1 and then transferred to SPSS 21 for analysis. Descriptive statistical analysis was done, and an association between an outcome variable and independent variables was examined in logistic regression models. RESULT: Overall, 65.8% of mothers practiced appropriate IYCF practice. The study revealed that 70.5% of children started breastfeeding within one hour of birth, and 61.6% were breastfed exclusively for six months. Among studied mothers, 79.5% continued to breastfeed their children until 2 years, and 69.2% of the participants started complementary feeding timely at six months. Minimum dietary diversity was observed in 19.2% of children, while minimum meal frequency was found in 79.2%. The majority of mothers (77.6%) fed their babies with bottles. Mother’s educational status of primary school [AOR = 4.50, 95% CI: (1.38,14.61)], husband’s occupation being merchant [AOR = 6.45, 95% CI: (1.51, 27.59)]; antenatal care follows up [AOR = 3.15, % CI: (1.22, 8.12)], radio/television ownership [AOR = 7.41, 95% CI: (2.86, 19.20)], child’s sex being female [AOR = 4.78, 95% CI: (2.26, 10.064) and sufficient knowledge on child feeding [AOR = 2.82, 95% CI: (1.27, 26.26)] were independent predictors for appropriate IYCF practice. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of appropriate infant and young child feeding practice indicators was found to be rather high among the mothers in this study. The use of a bottle to feed babies, in particular is very common among the mothers who were studied. To address child malnutrition, it is critical to educate families about proper IYCF practices. This study suggests that mothers be properly educated about IYCF recommendations at health care facilities during their visits, as well as the promotion of appropriate IYCF through various media.