INFANT FEEDING PRACTICE IN OYO TOWN IMPLICATION FOR HEALTH EDUCATION

Abstract

Malnutrition is very prevalent among the children from age 0-5 years, most especially in the developing countries such as Nigeria. Hence the need to address ourselves to finding ways of overcoming this problem. The study was aimed at obtaining information on infant feeding practices by mothers in Oyo town. The town was first zoned into two i.e. the indigenous areas and the urban transitional areas. Mothers who have had at least two children in succession and are currently breast-feeding constituted the study populatIon. Questionnaires were used to collect data from 203 mothers using simple random sampling technique results of the data collected were then compared among respondents in the indigenous and the transitional area. The findings of the study showed that respondents are within the age of 15-44 years with 30-34 year group forming the greatest percentage. All mothers in the two groups practiced breast feeding for varying periods of time. Among the non-indigenous group, which are mostly elites, children are breastfed for 6-10 months and among the Indigenous group, for up to two years. The weaning period in both groups was either two early or too late. The use of infant formulae was found to be rapidly gaining ground despite the high cost; 51.0% of the indigenous group and 84.4% of the non-indigenous group made use of infant formula to supplement breast milk. In addition, the use of local herbs (Agbo) was still in practice especially among the indigenous mothers. Ordinary pap (Op) or mixture of pap and bournvita was used by some mothers as weaning diet. Based on the findings, it was recommended by the author that nutritional education should be further strengthened at the infant welfare clinics, with emphasis on infant feeding techniques, types of weaning diet, precise weaning age and nutritional requirement of infants at different stages of their growth.