Infant Feeding Practices Among Nursing Mothers

To find solutions to the nutritional related problems that are common in the early stage of life, it is very necessary to determine the nature, magnitude and determinants of malnutrition. Anthropometric measurements are accepted widely as key indicator of the nutrition status of the community. Anthropometric indices are also suggestive of the socio-economic level. The anthropometric measurements include measurement of weight for age, height for age, weight for height and measurement of mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC). The integrated management of childhood illness (IMCI) approach for the classification of nutritional status will be used in this study. 

According to Hunger Facts (2015), globally about 795 million individuals are undernourished. The vast majority (98%) of these undernourished reside in the developing countries. Under-nutrition among the infants remains a problem faced by different parts of the world. Close to 50% of all deaths among infants are attributable to under nutrition. This implies that there is unnecessary loss of about 3 million young lives every year (Hunger Facts, 2015). In Sub-Saharan Africa, close to 50% of children particularly the infants are malnourished and deaths from such nutrition related condition is on the increase (FAO, 2008). Nutrition related problem in Sub-Saharan Africa has added more to the burden of childhood morbidity and mortality. However, the information available on the infant feeding in informal settlements can be considered as little and inadequate (Olack, Burke, Cosmas, Bamrah, Dooling, Feikin & Breiman, 2011). 

Reducing nutritional related problems among children particularly the infants is a huge challenge that is being faced by different countries particularly the underdeveloped and the developing countries. In Kenya, the percentage of stunted children among the infants is 35%, 14% were considered to be severely stunted while underweight was 16% (low weight-for age) and severely underweight was 4%. The core factor responsible for all these nutrition related health challenges as conceived by different researchers can be linked to food access issue, infections of various degrees and forms, maternal/paternal factor, socio-economic factors and other related factors.

Nigeria (especially the rural areas) is one of the developing countries that are affected by this nutrition-related problem. This might be related to causes that are found in other regions of the world like poor access to food, primary care giver factor, socio-economic factor, area of abode and other related factors. The Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (2003) put the rate of stunted growth among the infants years to be 38%, underweight to be 29% while wasting was 9.2%. Several factors can be considered to have caused these nutritional deficiencies. According to the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) Nigeria (2007), 7% is the rate of compliance of nursing mothers to exclusive breastfeeding of their children who are less than 6 months.

According to Adegun, Ajayi-Vincent, and Alebiosu (2013) there are not enough supporting data on under-nutrition among children in schools in Ekiti State which can easily be generalized but a closer look at the children in schools by different investigators suggests the prevalence of nutritional related problems among children in Ekiti. Common nutritional problems as faced by the infants made are protein energy malnutrition (PEM), anemia due to iron deficiency, vitamin A and iodine deficiency respectively (Babatunde, 2003).

Factors including biologic, economic, cultural, environmental and of disease origin have been found to affect nutritional status. Inadequate food intake, food insecurity, poor distribution of food in the household, poor storage pattern of the available food, wrong food handling, nutritional taboos/ harmful traditional practices and different types of infections among infants might make the children to be most vulnerable to nutritional related problems. These factors might be seen to have immediate, underlying biological and behavioural, underlying social and economic, and basic influences on the children (Degarege, Degarege & Animut, 2015). Understanding the causes and the effects of different nutritional status will help proffer necessary recommendations.