Child feeding practices and growth of infants and young children from two rural areas in southern Ethiopia

Sixty mothers from two villages in cereal and root crop production areas in Ethiopia were interviewed to collect information about child feeding practices, and heights and weights of their 6–36 month‐old‐children were assessed. Forty‐two percent of mothers were illiterate and 47% had only primary education. Average children per household was 3.8, but the majority of mothers were less than 35 years suggesting that family size may increase. Approximately half of the families owned animals including poultry but most products were not used by the family. All mothers breastfed their infants, but in one village 100% of mothers initiated breast‐feeding on the day of birth and in the other only 60% of mothers initiated breastfeeding on the first day. Introduction of complementary foods varied and many mothers were unaware of hygienic storage of these foods. The major complementary foods in the cereal production area were fenugreek water and a thin cereal gruel while in the root crop production area boiled potatoes, corn bread or kocho bread were the complementary foods. Nearly 50% of the children had diarrhea in the past 3 weeks despite the availability of tap water in the village. During diarrheal illnesses, more than two‐thirds of the mothers withheld liquid food and milk. One‐third of the mothers had experienced the death of a child. In the cereal production area, 47% of the children were stunted (length/height‐for‐age Z score lower than −2) and 50% were underweight (weight‐for‐age Z score lower than −2) and in the root production area, stunting was 83.3% and underweight was 60%. These data show serious long and short‐term malnutrition in both areas. (Supported by Debub University)