Driving Factors of Infants and Under-five Children Feeding Practices in Kori Chiefdom, Sierra Leone

Introduction: The degree to which mothers adhere to the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) regarding breastfeeding and complementary feeding is key to the nutritional status of their infants and young children and their overall development. However, the adherence to this dietary recommendation is contingent on the socio-economic conditions of the child-bearing parents, especially the mothers. This study looks at how the socioeconomic characteristics of mothers influenced the feeding practices of children not more than five years old in rural Sierra Leone.

Method: Data were collected in 2017 on representative mothers with children within 0-5 years old. A total of 10 communities and 200 respondents were randomly covered in the Kori Chiefdom of Moyamba District, Sierra Leone. Structured questionnaires, inter-personal interaction, personal observation, and experience were all used to collect data. The data was analysed in Microsoft Excel and SPSS, and the results were displayed in simple graphs and tables.

Results: Socioeconomic characteristics of mothers such as access to nutritional information, age, parity and educational status of mother as well as household’s monthly income had effects on some feeding practices. Mothers with better access to nutritional information did timely initiation of breastfeeding. Also, there was a positive correlation between mothers’ education and exclusive breastfeeding (r = 0.233, p < 0.01). Mother’s age and parity also have positive relations with duration of breastfeeding (r = 0.552, p < 0.01) (r = 0.191, p < 0.01). However, household’s monthly income had a negative correlation with age of introduction of the child to complementary feeding (r = -0.259, P < 0.01) and its duration a strong positive one (r = 0.202, p < 0.01) than education of the mother. Whereas, a slight negative correlation exit between the age of the mother and duration/period of complementary feeding (r = -0.206, p < 0.01).

Conclusion: The study shed enough light on the socioeconomic characteristics and feeding practises of children in impoverished rural Sierra Leone. In this sense, the study has laid the groundwork for more in-depth correlation studies on the factors influencing children's feeding practises and how this affects the nutritional status of children in poor rural Africa. From here, practically adoptable recommendations can be advanced for the attention of the governments, public institutions, the private sector and the individuals of the society.