Abo-Salem, L., Nafee, H. (2007). Feeding Under 2 Children at El-Mansoura University Hospital: Practices and Problems. Journal of High Institute of Public Health, 37(1), 245-259. doi: 10.21608/jhiph.2007.22313
Lila Y. Abo-Salem; Hoda M. Nafee. "Feeding Under 2 Children at El-Mansoura University Hospital: Practices and Problems". Journal of High Institute of Public Health, 37, 1, 2007, 245-259. doi: 10.21608/jhiph.2007.22313
Abo-Salem, L., Nafee, H. (2007). 'Feeding Under 2 Children at El-Mansoura University Hospital: Practices and Problems', Journal of High Institute of Public Health, 37(1), pp. 245-259. doi: 10.21608/jhiph.2007.22313
Abo-Salem, L., Nafee, H. Feeding Under 2 Children at El-Mansoura University Hospital: Practices and Problems. Journal of High Institute of Public Health, 2007; 37(1): 245-259. doi: 10.21608/jhiph.2007.22313
Feeding Under 2 Children at El-Mansoura University Hospital: Practices and Problems
Department of Pediatric Nursing, Faculty of Nursing, Mansoura University, Mansoura, Egypt
Abstract
The study was conducted on 121 children who attended the out-patient clinic at El-Mansoura University Children Hospital. The objectives were to identify the common problems in feeding practice of children under 2 years of age, to estimate the proportion of children potentially at risk for nutritional and other health problems, and to characterize such a vulnerable group in terms of demographic variables. Data were collected through interviewing the children's mothers/caregivers, children's nutritional as well as health status were investigated using IMCI format and weight for age criteria. The results revealed that 64.5% of the study samples were exclusively breastfed, 17.4% artificially fed babies, and 47.1% of children were receiving less number of breast feeds per day. Insufficient and unbalanced complementary feeding was obvious among the studied sample. Either early or delayed weaned children constituted 18.2%. The common health problem of the studied sample as diagnosed by pediatrician were. diarrhea & vomiting (44.6%), ARI (38.8%), low weight (15.7%), and 14% had anemia. Training courses for first-level health workers on IMCI in order to emphasize the guidelines for appropriate feeding practices and how to support complementary feeding as part of mothers' teaching in an out-patient basis is recommended.