DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2019.v07i08.025

Pages: 2747-2752

Breastfeeding is of considerable importance in the context of childhood nutrition. Nutritional requirements of an infant can be obtained solely from breast milk for the first six months of its life. Many studies had been done in Bangladesh regarding infant feeding practices. This was a case control study done in the Department of Paediatrics, Adhunik Sadar hospital, Nilphamari, Bangladesh during the period from June 2017 to December 2017. The present study has been designed to evaluate the determinants of exclusive breastfeeding which may reflect the current breastfeeding situation in the community. This case control study conducted among babies aged 4 to 6 months. A total of 50 exclusively breastfed (EBF) and 200 non-exclusively breastfed (NEBF) babies were enrolled. Parents or caregivers were interviewed with a semi-structured questionnaire. Initially univariate association was sought; factors found to be significantly associated in univariate analysis were entered into multivariate model for generating odds ratio adjusted for possible related confounders. EBF was not related to the mother’s age (P>.05), education (P>.05) or parity (P>.05), rather it’s the place and mode of delivery (P<.05) that shows the difference. Babies who had delivered by C/S were found to be less likely to exclusively breast fed (OR .53 CI .29-.94). Further mothers who delivered at clinic were less likely to practice EBF than those delivered at public hospital or even at home (OR .23 CI .13-39). EBF practice is more among the babies whose parents had knowledge about EBF before delivery (P< .05). Regarding initiation of breastfeeding In EBF group, most (90%) of the babies started breastfeeding within 24 hours. In NEBF the percentage is 62% (P<.05). The most common (64%) reason for not exclusively breast feeding was ‘not enough breast milk’. EBF campaign should be strengthened among people of all socioeconomic and socio demographic strata. Private facility where delivery facility is availab