CHILD FEEDING KNOWLEDGE AND PRACTICES AMONG NURSING MOTHERS IN ADO-EKITI, NIGERIA

Abstract

This study was carried out to assess nursing mothers’ child feeding knowledge and practices. Descriptive research design of the survey type, was adopted in this study. One hundred and eighty five nursing mothers having babies between 0 and 24months, randomly selected in two health facilities in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, participated in the study. Self- developed questionnaire was the instrument for data collection. Data were analyzed using frequency counts, percentages, mean, ANOVA and Pearson Product Moment Correlation. All inferences were made at 0.05 level of significance. The mean scores of mothers’ knowledge that children who are less than 6 months do not need water and that the ideal time to stop breastfeeding a child is after 2years, was just a little above average(M=1.65, SD=.48; M=1.67, SD=.47) respectively. 93.5% of the nursing mothers breastfeed their babies regularly, 53.3%, 65.1%,73.2% and 91.0% of the nursing mothers introduced water, infant formula, cereals and solid foods respectively into their babies diet after 6months.Educational status of mothers had significant influence on mothers’ knowledge (F=3.55, P<0.05. Knowledge of child feeding had significant positive relationship with mothers’ practices (R=.188, P>0.05). There is need for health workers to regularly give nutrition education to nursing mothers so as to enhance their knowledge and practice of child of child feeding.