A survey on the starting age of complementary feeding and some of its associated factors in the breast-feeding infants (Semnan, Iran)

There is a relationship between children’s survival, development and health and their feeding. Malnutrition is a common complication in most of the developing countries. Complementary feeding begins in infants when they can not obtain enough energy and nutrients from mother’s milk. Both early and late beginning of complementary nutrition lead to severe complications, and suitable age for feeding in infants is after month 6. The present study was performed to estimate the age of beginning of complementary feeding and related factors in infants of Semnan. In this cross sectional study, 400 infants aged 6-12 months were analized via questionnaire. In each of 8 health centers in Semnan, 50 mothers who referred to health care centers, filled up questionnaires. 76.3% of mothers begin the complementary feeding from 6 months after delivery. The most common complementary food, which was used, was cereal (69.5%). Mean (±SD) beginning age of complementary feeding was 5.86±0.60 month. Most of mothers (97.5%) had been received information about infant’s feeding through appointments, books, vaccination card and pamphlet prior to their infants reach to age 6 month. There was a significant relationship between occupation of mother (P=0.049), age of mother (P=0.040), father's educational level (P=0.002), type of delivery (P=0.015) and the beginning age of complementary feeding. However, no significant relationship was observed between gender, type of milk, birth order, type of health care center, mother's educational level, first complementary feeding, type of mother's education and the beginning age of complementary feeding. The findings of current study showed that 97.5% of mothers were educated for beginning of complementary feeding in a suitable time; however, about 23% of them didn’t begin complementary feeding in an appropriate time. Therefore, it seems more effective education is necessary to give by health care centers to mothers especially for older mothers and those have normal delivery.