Maternal Knowledge on Complementary Feeding Practice and Nutritional Status of Children 6-23 Month in Jigjiga Town

The purpose of this study was to determine mothers knowledge on complementary feeding practices and relate this to the nutritional status of their children aged 6-23 months. The study adopted a cross-sectional analytical study design and was carried out at the kebele 05 in Jigjiga town among the randomly sampled 110 mothers and their children. A researcher-administered questionnaire was used to collect data. Data was entered and analyzed using SPSS version 20 ENA [1]. Anthropometric measurements were analyzed using Microsoft Excel. The respondents were mostly young (mean age 27.7±4.7 years), married (87.3%), housewives (70%) with mainly primary school level of education (48.2%). The main sources of income for most households were business (48.6%) and casual labor (31.8%). Mothers had high knowledge on complementary feeding practice (90%) out of the 20 knowledge questions. All (100%) the children aged 6-8 had been introduced to solids, semi-solids and soft foods. Majority of the breast-fed children received minimum meal frequency were 6-8 months old (86.7%) and 9-23 months old (90%) unlike the non-breast fed children (80%). Overall, 52.7% of all the children were stunted, 49.1% wasted and 43.6% underweight. Maternal knowledge on complementary feeding was significantly associated with nutritional status of their children. Mothers knowledge on feeding the sick and recovering children was related to underweight in children. The same was true of mothers who knew that a child’s main meal should be diversified. Mothers knowledge on complementary feeding practices was not significantly related to her complementary feeding practices (p>0.05). Nutrition programme should pay attention to cultural beliefs on infant and young child feeding.