Magnitude and Determinants of Bottle Feeding in a Peri-Urban Community
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Date
1995-05
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
A descriptive cross-sectional sur vey was conducted
in Butajira Woreda , south western Ethiopia, fo r a period
of two months to determine the extent of bottle use in
child feeding, fact ors associated with its use and the
time of introduction of supplementary f eeding . A t otal
of 1536 households with children 0-23 months were
included in the study. The study found out the overall
prevalence of bottle feeding to be 11.3% and the
prevalence among children on suppl ementary feeding to be
16.7%. Only 6.3% of the bottle fed children were on
bottle alone . Residence, maternal education and
occupation were significantly associated with the
practice of bottle feeding in the crude analysis and
after adjusting for parental and child characteristics (P
<0 . 05) . Only 53 .3% of the children received timely
supplementary feeding, that is, between 4-6 months .
Thirty four percent of children beyond the six months of
age were found to be on exclusive breast feeding. Child
bottle f eeding practice was significantly associated with
early introduction of supplementary feeding, P<0.05.
The extent of bottle feeding in the studied
community is quite high and was found to be practiced
more among the relatively well to do members of the
community, a trend which was seen in the developed world
at the beginning of the century.
Improvement in maternal and child health services
including health education are recommended.
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Department of Community Health Faculty of Medicine