Infant Feeding Practices among Tribal Population in Ananthapuramu district, Andhra Pradesh (original) (raw)
Breast milk is the best, safest, and most nutritional feeding for infants, and the health benefits of breastfeeding was well recognized. Colostrums feeding provides nutrients and immunity to the infant. Both infants and mothers advantage with early breastfeeding initiation and exclusive breastfeeding practices. Even though breastfeeding is almost universal in India, culture and tradition exhibit great impact in breastfeeding practice. In the present study, an attempt were made to explore several aspects of infant feeding practices among the Sugali tribes of Andhra Pradesh, Ananthapuramu area. Background: To assess the present study, various aspects of infant feeding practices among the sugali tribe community of ananthapuramu district, Andhra Pradesh with certain objectives such as to study time initiation of breast milk, length of breast feeding, age of introduction of supplementary feeding, type of supplementary food etc. Materials and Methods: A descriptive study was conducted during June-2019 to February-2020 among 500 tribal mothers were interviewed with the help of pre-deigned semi-structured questionnaire and also through a personal observation. Results: Nearly 92.2 percent (461) of the mothers had said that they initiated breastfeeding within the first hour of birth, while only 7.8 percent initiated breastfeeding after one hour of delivery. It was observed that most (55.4%) of the mothers were continuing to breastfeed their children for more than one year. Only 10.0 percent of the mothers stopped weaning before 6 months of age. Exclusive breast feeding was practiced for a long period of 2 years and supplementary foods were introduced only after the child attained 6 months of age. Proper counselling of the mothers on infant feeding practices would help in a great way in reducing child under nutrition. Conclusion: Even though knowledge and practice of breastfeeding was better, However, there is still a gap in between knowledge and practice. Age at marriage and first pregnancy for the girls seem to be the biggest social issues, because a majority of the respondents were married below the legal age of marriage. There is a need for promotion and protection of optimal feeding practices for improving the nutritional status of infants.
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