Abstract:
Infant feeding is the cornerstone in infant and childhood survival strategy.
This study was carried out to determine infant feeding patterns in Aguata
(urban) and Anaocha (rural) Local Government Areas (LGAs). This was a
comparative cross sectional study of nursing mothers attending a child
welfare clinic in Aguata and Anaocha LGAs. A total of 241 mother-infant
dyads were interviewed (120 in Aguata and 121 in Anaocha) and the
nutritional status of the infants was assessed. Data was analyzed using SPSS
version 20 with a significance level set at p<0.05. The major source of
information on infant feeding was from health workers in both LGAs (72.5%
in Aguata and 90.1% in Anaocha). The majority of the mothers were still
breastfeeding at the time of study (93.3% in Aguata and 95.4% in Anaocha).
Majority of the mothers in both LGAs practised breast milk only when the
child was less than 6 months (53.3% in Aguata and 79.3% in Anaocha). Using
the WHO Z-score classification, majority of the infants in both LGAs had
normal nutritional status (71.1% in Aguata and 76% in Anaocha had normal
weight for age, 66.7% in Aguata and 51.2% in Anaocha had normal length for
age, 62.5% in Aguata and 44.6% in Anaocha had normal weight for length).
