Abstract :
The choice of breast or bottle feeding among the mothers depends upon several factors like age, literacy and socio-economic status of the mothers. Due to urbanization, a rapid decline in breast feeding is anticipated even a country like India where breast feeding is a traditional approach to infant feeding. The survey was conducted in Meerut district of western U.P. in the year 2009-10 to obtain relevant information regarding general feeding practices in infant food users. 100 families from rural area and 100 families from urban area having infants were selected, randomly for the study. The data were collected with the help of prepared schedule and questionnaire by personal interview method with the four or five meetings with the respondent. The survey of infant feeding practices indicates that the 39.50 per cent of mother were following breast feeding and 60.50 per cent were following bottle feeding. The current study also projected that majority of the literate mothers 71.90 per cent adopted bottles feeding. The trend was much lower in illiterate mothers. However, among the users, a small section of mothers 30.58 per cent was unable to give any specific reason for breast feeding. However, among the users, 35.54 per cent were working mothers, 15.70 per cent experienced lactation failure and 18.18 per cent had inadequate milk in flow. This observation is of great significance, as reconstituted feed may serve as an excellent medium for growth multiplication and elaboration of toxic metabolites endangering the health of babies. Mothers belonging to low income group having less formal literate need especial attention if they practices bottle feeding.
Keyword :
feeding practices, infant feeding, survey, bottles feeding, breast feeding