ABSTRACT

The study focused on anthropometric assessment of exclusive and nonexclusive breastfeed babies 0-6 months in Umuahia North rural and urban areas. Cross sectional research design was adopted. The study comprised of breastfeeding mothers in Umuahia North L.G.A Abia State. The variables analyzed are; demographic characteristics of the respondents, socio-economic characteristics of the respondents, knowledge and awareness of the respondents, attitudes of the mothers towards breastfeeding. The study revealed that many 66.5% of the respondents were between the ages of 18-35 years while a few (0.8%) were 56 years and above. More than half (67.0%) of the respondents had four children only while few 3.8% had only one child. A little above half (58.6%) of the respondents lived in corrugated iron sheet buildings while few (0.8%) of the respondents lived in thatch houses. Borehole was the source of water supply for (53.6%) of the respondents as only 4.6% reported stream/river/pond as their source of water supply. Pit latrine (54.4%) was the prevalent type of toilet among the respondents as 3.8% used buckets. Many (62.8%) of the respondents had secondary education while 0.4% had no formal education. Trading/business was the main occupation of more than half (54.4%) of the respondents with few 4.2% of them civil/public servants.  A little above half (50.2%) of the respondents earned a monthly income between N16, 000-N49, 999 whereas only few earned below N5,000 monthly. Result shows that majority (99.6%) of the respondents were aware about exclusive breastfeeding while few 0.4% have not heard about it. Majority 82.0% of the respondents reported hospital/health centers as their source of awareness with a further 8.4%, 5.0% and 4.2% reporting  friends/relatives, radio and television and television respectively. Many (65.3%) of the respondents had a fair knowledge on exclusive breastfeeding with a further 26.4% having poor knowledge while 8.3% had good knowledge on exclusive breastfeeding. This study also revealed that 26.4%, 65.3% and 8.3% of the mothers had poor knowledge, fair knowledge and good knowledge on exclusive breastfeeding this result could be due to most of them having secondary education. The attitude of the respondents towards exclusive breastfeeding was examined. The findings showed that the respondents agreed that breastfeeding a baby with only milk and no water is the best food for the child for 6 months (4.06±1.34) and that a mother can express her breast milk to be given to a baby if she is not around (3.50±1.12). However, they were undecided about children breastfed with only milk being more intelligent than children breastfed with water (2.55±0.15) and that there is no need practicing exclusive breastfeeding because even those that teach about it do not practice it (3.00±0.18). The study recommended increased awareness through others sources and foster work place policies as this will help improve the knowledge attitude and practice of exclusive breastfeeding among mothers.