Ikobah, Joanah M;
Taminiau, Jan;
Nel, Etienne;
Fewtrell, Mary;
(2023)
Complementary Feeding in Western Cape, South Africa: Identifying Suboptimal Practices and Potential Targets for Intervention.
Cureus
, 15
(10)
, Article e46512. 10.7759/cureus.46512.
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Abstract
Introduction: Appropriate complementary feeding is important for the normal growth and development of children. This study aimed to describe the complementary feeding practices and identify suboptimal practices that would be possible targets for intervention to improve practices among mothers of infants aged six weeks to one year in Western Cape Province, South Africa. // Methods: This hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted at the emergency unit of the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health of Tygerberg Academic Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa, between May 2017 and June 2017 among 110 mothers and their infants. Infants with minor ailments were included in the study. Patients requiring hospital admissions or severely ill infants requiring oxygen or ventilation, premature babies, and children with congenital anomalies were excluded from the study. The relationship between sociodemographic variables and the time of commencement of complementary food was described. // Results: The mean age of infants was 6.4±3.2 months, while the mean age of mothers was 27.6±5.5 years. On average, the age at introduction of complementary food to infants was 2.17±1.50 months. Among the complementary foods given to infants less than six months of age, cereals were the most commonly introduced (76.5%), while the least were sweet beverages (5.9%). Maternal age ≤ 34 years and first-born infant were significantly associated with early commencement of complementary food before six months of age (p=0.042 and p=0.032, respectively). // Conclusion: This study indicated that commencement of complementary food as early as two months of age with the use of non-nutritious and inappropriate food remains a significant problem in the region. There is a need for further education of mothers on appropriate complementary feeding practices given the importance of complementary feeding practices to the optimum growth and development of children.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Complementary Feeding in Western Cape, South Africa: Identifying Suboptimal Practices and Potential Targets for Intervention |
| Location: | United States |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.7759/cureus.46512 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.46512 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © Copyright 2023 Ikobah et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License CC-BY 4.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
| Keywords: | South africa, western cape province, breastfeeding, infants, complementary feeding |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL GOS Institute of Child Health UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL GOS Institute of Child Health > Population, Policy and Practice Dept |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10188509 |
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