Understanding perceptions and practices of mothers toward infant and young child feeding in Toke Kutaye districts: Community-based qualitative study.

Background: Complementary feeding is a process starting at 6 months of age when breastfeeding alone cannot provide the nutrients infants require. Foods and liquids are started along with breastfeeding up to 24 months, while complementary foods are available either from a garden or local market appropriate to complement breast milk at 6 months to satisfy the nutritional needs of the infant. Infancy is from birth to 12 months of age, and the term young child is used when referring to infants and children from 12 months to 2 years of age. Infants and young children require a sufficient diet that includes all nutrients that support overall growth and development. Appropriate feeding practices are crucial during infancy and early childhood. In addition to breastfeeding, complementary feeding should be started on time, administered safely and appropriately, and in sufficient amounts with regularity, consistency, and a variety of foods to meet nutritional needs.

Objectives: This work was designed to understand the perceptions and practices of infant and young child feeding among mothers with children under 2 years in the West Shewa Zone Toke Kutaye districts.

Methods: The study was conducted from December 05 to December 30, 2023. Twenty-seven mothers with children under 2 years old participated. The study was a cross-sectional descriptive qualitative study that employed focus group discussions and in-depth interviews to gather perceptions, opinions, practices, beliefs, and experiences about infant and young child feeding. Before coding, texts were double-checked against audio files to ensure accuracy and consistency. Afan Oromo conducted verbatim transcriptions of the focus group discussions and in-depth interviews, transcribed into Microsoft Word 2010.

Results: The study revealed that most infants were not initiated early into breastfeeding and were not exclusively breastfed because most mothers gave cow milk, especially after 2 months, when mothers returned to working on other activities. Most mothers begin complementary feeding at the age of 4 months.

Conclusions: The responses of mothers from all age strata regarding factors that hinder appropriate infant and young child feeding show a lack of awareness about initiating early breastfeeding. Extreme work overload prevented the feeding of breast milk and preparation of a complementary diet as per protocol, low utilization of family planning, and a perceived shortage of food items to prepare a balanced diet for complementary feeding were factors that hindered appropriate infant and young child feeding. Concerned stakeholders should work to alleviate the extreme workload among mothers with children under 2 years old and reduce their lack of awareness by designing appropriate infant and young child feeding education; cooking demonstrations are strongly recommended.