Prevalence and Determinants of Appropriate Child Feeding Practice Among Mothers Having Children with and without Diarrhea Aged 6–23 Months in Debre Berhan Town, Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: In Ethiopia, data related to the appropriate child feeding (ACF) practice is limited. Complementary foods are not introduced in a timely fashion for many children, and most mothers do not follow the established recommended national child feeding strategy. Therefore, this study was designed to evaluate the prevalence, and determinants of ACF practice among mothers having children with and without diarrhea aged 6– 23 months. Methods: A comparative cross-sectional study design was performed from January to May 2020. A sample size of 261 mothers of a child with diarrhea and 500 mothers of a child without diarrhea was recruited. The data were conducted by using a pretested and structured questionnaire. Data were clean-code and enter into EPI-data, version 3.1 and exported to IBM SPSS, version 21 for analysis. Multivariable binary logistic regression analysis was conducted. P-value less than or equal to 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Results: The overall prevalence of ACF practice was 70.3%. Sufficient maternal knowledge [AOR = 4.3 (95% CI; 2.1– 8.8)] and post natal care (PNC) visit [AOR = 2.2 (95% CI; 1.1– 4.5)] were factors associated with ACF practice among mothers having children with diarrhea. However, maternal knowledge [AOR = 4.98 (95% CI; 3.0– 8.3)] was the only significant associated factor with ACF practice for mothers having children without diarrhea. Conclusion: The prevalence of ACF practice among mothers having children with diarrhea is lower than mothers having children without diarrhea. Maternal knowledge was a significantly associated factor of ACF practice for mothers having children both with and without diarrhea.