CHILD FEEDING AND NUTRITIONAL PRACTICES AMONG THE MOTHERS IN RURAL AND URBAN SLUM AREAS IN BANGALORE, KARNATAKA -A CROSS SECTIONAL STUDY

Background:  Malnutrition is a major problem among children and most of it is linked to faulty breastfeeding practices.

Methods:It is a cross sectional study on the child feeding and nutritional practises among the mothers in DevanahalliThaluk representing the rural area, and DeveraJeevanahalli representing the urban slum area of Bangalore. A multistage sampling was done to select villages and mohallasand  total of 210 mothers  were interviewed by household visits. For in depth understanding of those issues, Focussed Group Discussions (FGDs) were conducted in each study population.

Results: Breast feeding was almost universal however most of babies were breastfed after the recommended golden hour. Pre lacteal feed was still widely practiced in slums (66.3%). In the present study, only 34.6% of mothers in rural area and 35.3% in urban slum breast fedexclusively for 6 months. . With regard to the knowledge of mothers about the assessment of adequacy of breast milk majority of the mothers in both population (80.2% in rural area and 79.8% in urban slum area) could answer only one out of the five required responses. The most common response was the child detaches on his/her own. They weren’t aware of other assessment factors like sleeps 2-3 hours after feed, passing 4-6 episodes of urine and 2-3episodes of stools per day. Top feeding with cow’s milk or formula milk was not prevalent in both the population.

The two study population differed in the type of complementary feed started. The traditional Ragi Sari is used by most mothers in rural area. 91.1% mothers in urban -slum area used biscuit and milk, and Cerelac as weaning food.

Bottle feeding was very common among the mothers of urban-slum area (76.9%) as compared to 44.4% in rural area.  67.9% of mothers in rural area were subjected to diet restrictionduring the lactation period, which significantly differed from the urban area.

CONCLUSION: Overall the child feeding and nutritional practices among the mothers in rural area seemed to be better compared to the urban-slum area especially based on the following aspects: • Percentage of mothers giving colostrum in the initial days of birth • Percentage of mothers not practicing pre-lacteal feeding. • Percentage of mothers starting the recommended weaning food (Raagi) as compared to Biscuit and milk in urban slum. • Percentage of mothers who did not practice bottle feeding. Having commented so, it may also be pointed out that, rural area does not display an appreciable level of standard regarding optimal child feeding and nutritional practise among the mothers.