Comparative Study of Infant Feeding Practices among Rural, Tribal and Urban Mothers in Telangana

Infant feeding practices among 1168 rural, tribal and urban mothers was assessed. Mothers registered at the ICDS centers were randomly selected. They belong to scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, backward and forward castes, Nuclear families are 52% rural, 35.8% tribal and 41.5 % urban, Illiterate mothers are 48 % in rural, 72.3% in tribal and 30.4% in urban areas, rest studied upto 7th and 10th class. Child marriages, below 15 years are predominant 41.6% percent in rural, 37.3% in tribal and 21.3 % urban mothers. Monthly checks ups were reported by 72.4%rural, 41.8% tribal, and 70.6% urban mothers. Iron and Folic Acid Tablets were consumed by every one with differeing frequencies. 95% mothers ate the supplementary food at the center. Deliveries at private hospitals accounted for 54.8 % in rural areas, 55.8% in urban. Among tribal 49.2 percenthad hospital delivery either private or government. Nearly 23.6%, 49.7%, 7.4% rural, tribaland urban familes still resorted to home deliveries, due to inaccessibility of the medical facilities, as the villages are remote. Initiation of breast milk within one hour of delivery is seen among 81%, 92.8% and 67.6% rural, tribal and urban mothers respectively. Majority mothers fed colostrum to the neonate considering it to be good and healthy. Prelacteal foods given to neonate are cows milk,,wet nursing, nothing, glucose water, or honey. Mothers weanig by 6 months are 70.6% in rural, 73.Tribaland 67.7% in urban otherws were weaned between 6-12 months. Immunization schedule was followed by 93% rural, 82.4% tribal, and 81.1% urban mothers,for the first dose, the percentage getting second and subsedquentl doses fell drastically. Mediana BMI of moters is 21.6 and the birth weight of babies is 3Kg. This study gave an indication that mothers acquired sufficient knowledge of good nutritional practices, due to availing upplementary feeding and nutrition programs. Although there is a significant shift in better nutritional practices, poverty, influence of elders, poor accessibility and availability of nutritious food is still a problem.