Mothers, practice about usage of iron supplement for infants and its related factors

Iron deficiency anemia is among the most common nutritional deficiency in children and accordingly, the use of iron supplementation is one of the strategies to cope with it. This study has been investigated the mothers, practice about usage of iron supplement in infants 6-24 months. 400 mothers referred to health centers in Semnan (Iran) in 2013 were selected via convenience sampling and their practice in the fields of feeding supplement to infants, onset time, its amount, and quality of care during supplementation was assessed. The favorable practice of feeding supplement was considered as feeding it in day prior to referring, on time start as onset of it from 6 months(for infants with normal weight) and upon reaching double weight of birth weight(for low birth weight infants), and about the amount of supplementation, as the amount of 15 drops. On the other hand to perform all precautions during supplement feeding was regarded as good practice. 73%, 94.5% and 89.4% of mothers participating in this study, had a favorable practice, in terms of the administration of iron supplement, the onset of supplementation and the amount of it respectively. The chance of feeding supplements to infants by mothers who had regular referring to health center for infant care was 4.56 times of mothers who had irregular referring(OR=4.56, 95% CI: 2.94-8.33, P< 0.001). Also with increasing the rank of birth, the chance of feeding supplements was decreased (OR=0.65, 95% CI: 0.47-0.90, P=0.009). There was a significant relationship between mothers, practice about start time supplement and fathers, job (OR=5.2, 95% CI:1.10-24.2,P=0.037).The most common cause of unfavorable mothers, practice about feeding iron supplement was amnesia (54.2%). Related to the quality of performance of precautions during supplement feeding, 46.6% of mothers had good, 23.6% had moderate and 29.8% had poor practice. The results of this study indicate that mother's practices, particularly related to the regular feeding supplement to infants require to be upgraded. Raising awareness and monitoring of mothers especially those who have irregular referral to health centers, have children with higher birth rank and those who have worker husbands is necessary.