Perceptions of adolescent mothers on feeding and nutrition of their children aged 0-3 years in rural Bangladesh

Abstract

Proper feeding practices of newborn and young children are the key to improve child overall health and to achieve developmental milestones. In Bangladesh, a large portion of young rural girls have ended up becoming mothers before the age of 18. From past records it has been seen that most interventions which are designed to improve infant and young child feeding practices have mostly targeted older mothers. That is why, this study has been designed with an aim to explore the perceptions and practices of infant and young children feeding among adolescent mothers aged less than 19 years old in rural Bangladesh. For this study, data was collected through in-depth interviews and group discussions with a total of twelve adolescent mothers who are less than 19 years old and have children aged 0-3 years old. Data has revealed that majority of the mothers hold very limited knowledge on nutrition as well as child nutrition. Among them, who are educationally a bit ahead hold a little better knowledge on those issues. All the participants are aware of exclusively breastfeeding for up to 6 months, though they all misinterpret the term ‘exclusive breastfeeding’ with other liquid food. From the data it has also emerged that most of the mothers recognize the ideal timing of starting complementary feeding but very few of them actually understand what to feed children in regular basis. In spite of having misconception and superstation rural adolescent mothers’ practice responsive feeding instead of force feeding. No gender discrimination has found regarding child feeding in mothers’ responses. Findings of the study pinpointed that mothers are unable to practice proper infant and child feeding due to lack of knowledge and limited affordability. Educating young girls & young mothers and improving financial security could be an effective way to promote improved infant feeding practices.