Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of Breast Feeding and Weaning among Mothers of Children up to 2 Years Old in a Rural Area

Introduction: Breast feeding and weaning practice is an important aspect in modern era. To evaluate the knowledge of mothers a study was conducted among 316 mothers in Parbatipur Upazilla, Dinajpur. Concerning national benefit, we have to grow awareness about the issue among the mothers as well as all the people.

Objective: To evaluate the mother’s knowledge on Breast feeding and Weaning practice of Parbatipur Upazilla, Dinajpur.

Methods: This is a cross sectional type of descriptive study conducted in Parbatipur Upazilla, Dinajpur among 316 mothers by the purposive sampling method.

Result: This study showed that among 316 mothers 201(63.6%) are less than 25 years,111(35.1%) are 25-35 years and rest 4(1.3%) mothers are more than 35 years. About 197(62.34%) mothers have undergone normal delivery and 119(37.66%) mothers have undergone cesarean- section. Among 316 mothers, 35(11.1%) mother don’t have adequate knowledge about breast feeding and 281(88.9%) mothers have adequate knowledge about breast feeding. About 301(95.3%) mothers believe that best nutrition for the baby is Breast milk and rest 15(4.7%) believe that other artificial foods are the best nutrition for the baby. About255(80.7%) mothers are aware of the advantages of breast milk for the baby and other 61(19.3%) mothers are unaware of the advantages of breast milk. 255(80.7%) mothers know about initiation of breast feeding and 61(19.3%) mothers don’t know about initiation of breastfeeding. 271(85.8%) mothers know about the duration of exclusive breastfeeding, 45(14.2%) mothers don’t know about the duration of exclusive breast feeding.239(75.6%) mothers know about the importance of Colostrum and 77(24.4%) mothers don’t know about the importance of Colostrum.

Conclusion: Majority of the respondents are familiar with breast feeding and weaning practice.Itseems that mothers are quite progressive about the issue.