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Latha S Kannan Amal Suliman Al Suliman Darling B. Jiji Eman M Gaber Hassan

Abstract

Background: Feeding practices like early breastfeeding initiation, exclusive breastfeeding, good weaning practices, hand washing at the time of feeding, and child vaccination are factors associated with childhood diarrhea. Among all, Weaning is an essential process to meet the nutritional demand of the growing infant. Objectives: A study to assess the knowledge of mothers who enrolled in the college and university regarding weaning process in Eastern region Saudi Arabia. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 125 Female students who enrolled in the college and university selected through stratified random sample method. A semi–structured self–administrated method was used to collect demographic information and questions regarding knowledge of weaning process. Results: Current study showed that mothers’ age range of 25-35 years. Majority (80.5%) of them stated that they began in the month of 10 -12months. Regarding the sources of information regarding weaning process the current study observed that 56% of them consult from family and friends, followed by health care providers, previous experience, and Internet (44%, 38.4% and 32%). Current study observed that mother select more than one food to start (either fluid / liquid and semi solid also crushed vegetables and fruits) to start weaning. Another study also mentioned that as for kind of food introduced during breast feeding, (81.3%) of the mothers reported crushed and easy to chew food, (61.8%) reported crushed vegetables and fruits while fluids were reported by 57.3% of the mothers. The majority (60.80%) of them have poor knowledge while only 4% of them have excellent knowledge. There is a significant difference between knowledge of weaning and number of visits to the hospital (p ≤ 0.05). 55.6% of the mother would like to gain knowledge about the weaning process in different topics. Conclusions: The findings highlight more effort should be paid to improve mother’s awareness in weaning process mainly starting time and kind of food to be started.

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Keywords

Breast feeding, weaning, feeding practices, knowledge, Saudi Arabia

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