Infant and Young Child Feeding Practices and Associated Factors Among Mothers of Children Aged 0-23 Months in Kalu District, North-East Ethiopia: Community Based Cross-Sectional Study

Background: Infant and young child feeding (IYCF) is a cornerstone of care for ensuring optimal child growth and development during the first 2 years of life. Scientific evidence indicates that various poor IYCF practices have been shown to have numerous negative effects on children’s health. Therefore, Improving IYCF practice is critical to improved nutrition, health, and development of these age group children. This study aims to assess IYCF practices and associated factors among mothers of children aged 0-23 months in Kalu district, Northeast Ethiopia. Methods: A community based cross-sectional study was conducted from 15 to 05/2019-15/06/2019. A total of 605 mothers who had a child aged 0-23 months were included in the study using multi-stage sampling followed by a simple random sampling technique. Data were collected using a pretested semi-structured interviewer-administered questionnaire. Bi-variate and multivariate logistic regression models were used to identify factors associated with IYCF practices. Statistical significance was determined at the p-value < 0.05 Result: Of six hundred five (605) sampled mothers having an IYC age 0 to 23 months, 589 were successfully included in the study making the response rate of 97.35 %. The overall prevalence of appropriate complementary and breastfeeding practices was 9.6% and 32.1% respectively. Place of delivery (AOR=1.653; 95% Cl (1.044, 2.615)), fathers occupation (AOR =2.278; 95% Cl:(1.156, 4.489)) and age of child (AOR =0.634 95% CI: (0.409, 0.983) were independently associated with appropriate breastfeeding practice. On the other hand,PNC service (AOR =2.972; 95% CI: (1.229, 7.186), place of residence(AOR =2.473; 95% CI: (1.275, 4.797), age of child (AOR =3.015; 95% CI: (1.282, 7.092) and household family size (AOR=2.398; 95% CI (1.062, 5.416) were factors significantly associated with appropriate complementary feeding practices in Kalu district. Conclusion: Both the breastfeeding and complementary feeding practices were inappropriate (sub-optimal) in Kalu district. As a result, interventional initiatives should focus on improving the coverage of PNC, institutional delivery service are crucial to implementing appropriate IYCF practice. Standardizing the basic health care elements and PNC package are also critical in addition to increasing service utilization.