Association between Mother’s Literacy and INFANT & Young Child Feeding (IYCF) Practices and Nutritional Status of Urban under 5 Year Children

Aim: To assess the association of mother’s literacy status with infant & young child feeding (IYCF) practices and nutritional status of urban under 5 year children.

Methods: A community based cross- sectional study was carried out among 356 urban children under 5 years from 30 randomly selected Anganwadi Centres (AWCs) in Hyderabad, during 2017-18. The information regarding infant & young child feeding (IYCF) practices was obtained from the mothers of under 5 year children. Anthropometric measurements such as height and weight of all the children were measured adopting standard procedures and using standard anthropometric equipment.

Results: About half of the mothers reportedly initiated breast feeding to their newborns within one hour of birth. The proportion of mothers fed pre-lacteals and colostrum to newborn was 35% and 96% respectively. A higher proportion of literate mothers (45.1%) exclusively breast fed their infants for the first 6 months as compared to their illiterate counterparts (32.9%). Significantly a higher proportion (63.3%) of literate mothers initiated complementary feeding to their infants soon after completion of 6 months as against 50% in illiterate mothers (p<0.05). The proportion of children with undernutrition i.e. underweight, stunting and wasting was 38.5%, 40.6% and 16.8%, respectively. The prevalence of underweight and stunting was significantly (p<0.05) higher among the children of illiterate mothers as compared to literate mothers.

Conclusion: In general, mother’s literacy was significantly associated with the IYCF practices as well as nutritional status of their children. Therefore, respective Governments should initiate appropriate measures to increase female literacy levels in India.