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The aim of this study was to assess complementary feeding practice and identify factors associated with it among mothers of children 6-23 months of age in Enemay district, Northwest Ethiopia.

A community-based cross-sectional study design with a multi-stage sampling technique was undertaken from March to April 2013. Pre-tested structured interviewer-administered questionnaire were used to collect the data. Epi data were used for data entry and cleaning and SPSS for descriptive and logistic regression analysis.

Timely complementary feeding, minimum acceptable meal frequency and minimum dietary diversity were 56.4, 60.6 and 8.5 percent among the respondents, respectively. The practice of optimal complementary feeding was 40.5 percent. Occupation, knowledge of complementary feeding and family income of the mother, and maternal healthcare services utilization were associated with optimal complementary feeding practice (OCFP).

The proportion of mothers who practiced timely complementary feeding, acceptable meal frequency and dietary diversity, and the overall OCFP were found to be low. Therefore, maternal healthcare services utilization and health information dissemination should be strengthened to all expectant mothers. Type of paper: Original research.

The study investigated the association between complementation and protein energy malnutrition among 201 rural and urban women with infants of 0‐18 months of age in the Osun State of Nigeria. The infants mothers were interviewed about their child feeding practices and anthropometric measurements were made on the infants. The result indicated growth faltering in infants from one month old in rural areas and from four months old in the urban communities. Stunting was prevalent and underweight and wasting were also noticed in the study population as a consequence of early introduction of complementary foods. The main recommendations were that complementary foods should not be introduced before the infant is four‐six months of age and that the complementary foods used presently should be improved nutritionally through a long‐term nutritional public education.

The purpose of this study was to identify the predictors of child undernutrition and anemia among children 6–24 months old in the East Mamprusi district, Northern region, Ghana.

This cross-sectional study recruited 153 children and their mothers. Weight, height and hemoglobin levels of the children were measured. A structured questionnaire based on the World Health Organization's indicators for assessing infant and young child feeding practices was used to collect data on parents' socioeconomic status, household characteristics, hygiene and sanitation practices, mothers' knowledge on feeding practices such as child's meal frequency and dietary diversity and child morbidity within the past two weeks. Predictors of child nutritional status were determined using multinomial logistic regression analysis.

Underweight in the children was significantly predicted by maternal knowledge on protein foods (AOR = 0.045, p = 0.008), time of initiation of complementary feeding (AOR = 0.222, p = 0.032) and maternal age (AOR = 9.455, p = 0.017). Feeding child from separate bowls (AOR = 0.239, p = 0.005), minimum meal frequency per child's age (AOR = 0.189, p = 0.007) and time of initiation of complementary feeding (AOR = 0.144, p = 0.009) were significant determinants of stunting among the children. Exclusive breast feeding (AOR = 7.975, p = 0.012) and child's past morbidity (AOR = 0.014, p = 0.001) significantly contributed to anemia among the children.

This is a cross-sectional study and cannot establish causality. The small sample size also limits the generalizability of study findings. However, findings of the study highlight factors which could potentially influence the high rate of child undernutrition in the study setting.

This study identifies determinants of undernutrition in the East Mamprusi district, an underresourced area in Ghana. This information could inform the development/reformulation of locally sensitive key messages and targeted intervention strategies to curb the high levels of child undernutrition in the East Mamprusi district of Ghana.

This study identifies maternal care practices as key potential drivers of undernutrition in a low-resource setting known for high prevalence of child undernutrition. It suggests insight for large-scale studies on the predictors of child undernutrition in Northern Ghana and other resource-poor settings.

Inadequacies in several micronutrients in complementary foods, notably iron, zinc, calcium, vitamin A, vitamin B6 and riboflavin have been reported. Moringa oleifera leaf powder (MLP), prepared from dried moringa leaves is nutrient-rich and has been explored for the treatment of micronutrient deficiencies among children in developing countries. This increasing interest in the use of moringa oleifera leaves to improve complementary foods notwithstanding, the unique sensory characteristics of the leaf powder potentially holds implications for the acceptability of local diets that are fortified with it. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the levels of MLP fortification that are most acceptable for feeding infants and young children.

The authors performed a review of the literature, with the aim of investigating the sensory attributes and acceptable levels of fortification of complementary food blends fortified with different levels of MLP.

The minimum amount of MLP to be added to a complementary food blend to observe significant improvements in its nutritional value was estimated to be about 10 per cent. However, at this 10 per cent fortification level also, sensory attributes of the products begin to become less desirable.

For the success of nutrition interventions that involve the use of MLP to improve the nutritional quality of complementary foods, there is a need to consider the acceptability of the sensory attributes of the formulated blends in the target group. Safety of MLP as an ingredient in infant foods must also be investigated.

The authors of this paper make recommendations for the use of MLP to fortify complementary foods to ensure its success as a food fortificant in nutrition interventions. The researchers are not aware of any published study that focuses on this subject.

The role of care as a critical influence on child nutrition, health, and development has received increasing attention in the last decade. While the role of care has been well elaborated at a conceptual level, we still lack simple valid and reliable tools to measure many aspects of care. Psychosocial care includes the behaviors and practices that support children's healthy growth and psychosocial development. The research presented here constitutes one of the first attempts to quantify some of the various dimensions of child‐care practices (namely type, quality, and frequency) and to summarize the information into a composite, age‐specific index of child‐care practices. The main purpose of this research is to examine, specifically within the context of Pakistan, which of the maternal and household characteristics constituted more severe constraints to the provision of good child care. The main findings of this research have important policy implications. They suggest that specific training in child feeding and the use of preventive health services for poor mothers with little formal education could have a large impact on the growth of children living in impoverished environments.

Childhood under‐nutrition remains a major health problem in resource‐poor settings like the rural areas in Nigeria. The purpose of this paper is to determine the types and nutrient adequacy of complementary foods used in a rural area.

The most frequently used (52 percent) homemade complementary food (HCF) in the area was studied, employing questionnaire, standardization of recipe and chemical analysis to evaluate the complementary food and to suggest improvement.

Two varieties of local beans (white and brown) were used in the preparation of HCF in the study area. They were either peeled to remove the coat or unpeeled. There was no significant difference (p<0.05) in the protein content of the HCF made from the two varieties. Using any of the beans unpeeled children between the ages of six and eight months meet their energy and protein requirement. The calcium, iron, and zinc contents of HCF from the two bean varieties were low.

This paper may be the first to evaluate HCF using mothers' method of preparation.

Child undernutrition is a persistent problem in Africa, especially in areas where the poor largely depend on starchy staples with limited access to diverse diets. The purpose of this study was to determine the protein quality, growth and rehabilitating potential of composite foods made from quality protein maize.

Four composite diets were prepared from quality protein maize, namely quality protein maize-soybeans; quality protein maize-soybeans-cowpeas; quality protein maize-soybeans-common beans and quality protein maize alone. A fifth diet was prepared from common maize alone. The control diet (Chesta®) was made from maize, soybeans, fish, bone and blood meal. The formulations were made to meet the greatest amino acid score and the desired amount of energy and fat according to the FAO/WHO (1985) recommendation for pre-school children. Albino rats were used in evaluating the protein quality of the formulations.

The food intake was significantly different (p < 0.05) among diets; with a trend of intake decreasing from quality protein maize-based to conventional maize alone diets (apart from the control diet). Protein efficiency ratio and net protein ratio varied significantly (p < 0.05) across the experimental diets. Protein digestibility-corrected amino acid score (PDCAAS) was 80 per cent (quality protein maize-soybeans-cowpeas), 87 per cent (quality protein maize-soybeans), 103 per cent (common maize alone), 98 per cent (quality protein maize), 80 per cent (quality protein maize-soybeans-common beans) and 53 per cent (control).

Two diets, namely quality protein maize-soybeans-common beans and quality protein maize-soybeans-cowpeas, showed the greatest potential to support growth and rehabilitation of undernourished rats. Human trial is proposed to validate the findings.

Despite adoption of quality protein maize in several parts of the country, there are no studies that have been done to determine the potential of quality protein maize to support optimal growth and rehabilitation of undernourished children. The objective of this study was, therefore, to evaluate the protein quality, growth and rehabilitating potential of composite foods made from quality protein maize.

After a few years away from the countryside, a brief visit to some farms in the heart of England reveals a changed scene. Farming is obviously prosperous and there are now many more young men farming; because of better conditions, older men have been able to retire and hand over to the younger man who has often attended an agricultural college and shows it in the methods he employs, especially in milk production Nowadays there seems to be a surfeit of machines, a greater use of machine‐milking, sometimes with pipe‐systems to cooler and direct to churns, without manual effort from start to finish. The rural water supply schemes and electrification between the two wars have revolutionised farming and taken the drudgery out of milk production. The farm kitchen is a revelation and the farmer's wife, young, strong, efficient, attractive and fashionable, surrounded with every electrical domestic appliance devised by the ingenuity of man, is as much changed as the farmer himself.

This paper aims to investigate breastfeeding and complementary feeding practices among children less than five years old and living in a rice surplus area in Demak Regency, Central Java.

From December 2014 to February 2015, a cross-sectional survey was carried out in Demak, which had a high proportion of undernourished children despite high rice production. In total, 384 mothers having children below five years old from farmer family background were interviewed using a structured questionnaire about sociodemographic parameters and child feeding practices. Food habits were also investigated among these women during two focus group discussions in two selected sub-districts.

Only 10.9 per cent of the children were exclusively breastfed for six months. About 60 per cent of the mothers practiced supplementary feeding in addition to breastfeeding and started complementary feeding too early. Duration of exclusive breastfeeding practice and child’s age at onset of complementary feeding were positively correlated (p = 0.04). The main reasons of supplementary feeding and too early introduction of complementary food were based on the elderly women’s opinions, and the very short duration of maternity leave for employed mothers. Mothers with a low education level had a higher chance of not reaching the optimum score of complementary feeding practices (p = 0.012).

Despite a high level of food security in the project area, inadequate knowledge of young child feeding practices has contributed to sub-optimal breastfeeding practices. Higher educated women were more likely to follow optimal complementary feeding practices. Therefore, promotion of breastfeeding and complementary feeding practices targeting all key actors should be implemented in the study area to prevent undernutrition among infants.

The low rate of exclusive breastfeeding and the early introduction of complementary feeding are among the causes of nutritional problems in children. The national coverage of exclusive breastfeeding in 2019 was 67.7%, surpassing the target of the 2019 Strategic Plan, which was 50%. However, there are still several practices of early and inappropriate complementary feeding (32.3%) that can be contributing factors to malnutrition problems in children. The purpose of this study was to determine the factors that influence mother’s self-efficacy levels regarding complementary feeding practices among toddlers in the Tengger tribe.

The study conducted was an observational study with a cross-sectional design. It focused on mothers with children aged 6–24 months in Wonokitri village, East Java. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire and information from the local health center. The analysis involved univariate and bivariate analysis using the chi-square test.

Most mothers were aged 20–34 years (78.9%), had a good level of knowledge (61.4%), the last education level of fathers and mothers was high school (47.4%; 54.4%), parents work as farmers (86.0%; 61.4%), Hinduism (98.2%), family income is less than the minimum wage (78.9%), and mothers receive good family support (73.7%). Most toddlers were boys (56.1%), aged 13–24 months (68.4%), and the second child (66.7%). Family support was the only factor that was significantly related to a mother’s self-efficacy in complementary breastfeeding practices (p-value = 0.042).

It is hoped that more families and health workers will support mothers in giving food to their babies based on the guidelines.

This paper collects evidence from indigenous people of the Tengger tribe.