Linking infant and young child feeding practices to Z-scores: Unraveling the impact on childhood stunting and wasting

Abstract

Abstract Introduction: Poor infant feeding practices predispose children to nutritional disorders which may persist into early childhood with life-long consequences. We aimed to find out prevalence of malnutrition among children aged less than six years and to assess infant and young children feeding practices and their impact on malnutrition. Methods: An analytic cross-sectional study was conducted between March 2021 and May 2022 among children up to six years of age registered in the Anganwadi centers of Rajkot district. Using the formula n = Z 2 pq/e 2, a sample size of 504 was estimated, including 10% nonresponders. Samples were drawn using a multistage simple random sampling method. The z scores related to the anthropometric measurements were estimated using the World Health Organization Anthro 2011 software. We reported prevalence of different types of malnutrition and infant and young child feeding practices. A logistic regression was used to identify significant factors for stunting and wasting (P < 0.05). Results: The mean age of the children was 32.43 months (SD 18.7 months). The prevalence of stunting and wasting was found 36.7% and 30.5%, respectively. The prevalence of prelacteal feeding practices was 72.8%. Less than one-fourth (21.4%) of children were exclusively breastfed and 77.9% of the children received complementary feeding at appropriate age. The binary logistic regression model showed that stunted growth was strongly associated with exclusive breastfeeding and complementary foods’ introduction at the appropriate age. Conclusion: As compared to national, state, and district averages, the prevalence of wasting was remarkably higher among children included in the study. In addition, the study underscores the disturbingly high prevalence of prelacteal feeding practices, which can have a detrimental effect on the health of newborns.