Background

The time of introduction and nutritionally adequate, safe, age-appropriate complementary feeding is extremely important for the child’s optimal growth, development, and health within the first 2 years of life. Despite a number of interventions to improve infant and young child feeding practices and nutritional status, appropriate feeding practices are far away from the recommendation. Therefore, the study aimed to assess timely initiation of complementary feeding practices and associated factors among children aged 6–23 months in Gondar town, northwest Ethiopia.

Methods

A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in December 2017. A multistage sampling technique was employed to select 632 mother-child pairs. Pretested structured and interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to collect data. Data were entered into Epi–info version 7 and transferred to SPSS version 20.0 for analysis. Both bivariable and multivariable logistic regression analysis were used to identify factors associated with timely initiation of complementary feeding. Finally, variables with a P-value of <0.05 were considered as statistically significant.

Results

The prevalence of timely initiation of complementary feeding was 47.3% (95%CI: 43.0, 51.3). Being housewife in maternal occupation (AOR = 2.03, 95%CI: 1.21, 3.43), good mother’s knowledge about complementary feeding (AOR = 1.80, 95% CI: 1.28, 2.53) and attending post-natal care checkup (AOR = 3.90, 95%CI: 1.26, 12.04) were significantly associated with timely initiation of complementary feeding.

Conclusion

This study revealed that timely initiation of complementary feeding was low within the study area. Around half of the children started complementary feeding at their 6 months of age. Therefore, special emphasis should be given to mothers who have poor knowledge about complementary feeding and encourage all mothers to have postnatal follow-up is crucial.

中文翻译：

---

埃塞俄比亚贡达镇西北部及时启动辅助喂养实践：一项横断面研究。

背景

引入时间和营养充足，安全，适合年龄的补充喂养时间对于孩子出生后头2年内的最佳生长，发育和健康至关重要。尽管采取了许多干预措施来改善婴幼儿喂养方式和营养状况，但适当的喂养方式与建议相距甚远。因此，该研究旨在评估埃塞俄比亚西北部贡达镇6-3个月大儿童及时开始补充喂养的做法及相关因素。

方法

2017年12月进行了一项基于社区的横断面研究。采用多阶段抽样技术选择了632对母子对。使用预先测试的结构化且由访调员管理的问卷来收集数据。数据输入Epi-info版本7，并传输到SPSS 20.0版本进行分析。双变量和多变量逻辑回归分析均用于确定与及时开始补充喂养有关的因素。最后，P值<0.05的变量被认为具有统计学意义。

结果

及时开始补充喂养的患病率为47.3％（95％CI：43.0，51.3）。在母亲职业中担任家庭主妇（AOR = 2.03，95％CI：1.21，3.43），良好的母亲对补充喂养的知识（AOR = 1.80，95％CI：1.28，2.53）并参加产后检查（AOR = 3.90， 95％CI：1.26，12.04）与及时开始补充喂养密切相关。

结论

这项研究表明，在研究区域内适时开始补充喂养的可能性很低。大约一半的孩子在6个月大时开始补充喂养。因此，应特别重视对补充喂养知识不足的母亲，并鼓励所有母亲进行产后随访至关重要。