FEEDING PRACTICES AND OCCURENCE OF DIARRHOEA AMONG CHILDREN OF LOW SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS IN IBADAN CITY: IMPLICATIONS FOR HEALTH EDUCATION

Abstract

Diarrhoeal diseases still constitute major causes of childhood morbidity and mortality in Nigeria. Various studies have shown the incidence rate of diarrhoeal diseases to be lower among children who are exclusively breastfed in early infancy. Children who are not exclusively breastfed consume a wide variety of foods including other type of milk. Some of these foods could pose a risk factors to diarrhoeal diseases. Thus there is the need to investigate the role being played by these food supplements in the development of diarrhoeal diseases among children in a poor Urban Nigerian Community. This is a descriptive study that investigated the feeding practices and occurrence of diarrhoeal among the infants in Oluyoro/Onipasan cummunity. After obtaining informed consent from the community leaders and husbands of the respondents, the enumeration of mothers with children under the age of one year was undertaken. A total of 243 mothers in this category was enumerated and interviewed. A set of questionnaire which was translated into Yoruba language and pre-tested was used for data collection. All the 243 administered questionnaires were retrieved, collated and analysed using the IBMP AT micro computer. Demographic results indicated that majority of the respondents (99.6%) were married. Slightly over one-third 34.6% holds the Primary Six Leaving Certificate and 37.5% with the Secondary School Leaving Certificate. Majority of the respondents were petty traders 101 (41.6%), followed by skilled workers 62 (25.5%). There was no marked differences in the sex of the infants. Exclusive breastfeeding was not reported in the study before the age of 3 months. The relationship between bottlefeeding and diarrhoea was statistically significant (p<0.05). Furthermore, results showed that majority (66.9%) of children who were bottlefed had diarrhoea. In addition, feeding modes (cup, hand, spoon) other than food types were found associated with diarrhoea occurrence for other supplements. Based an these findings, the author recommends health education approach that will encourage breast-feedinq, discourage early supplementation and improve upon infants food hygiene.