ABSTRACT

 This study was carried out to assess the complementary feeding practices and dietary diversity among children 6-23 months in Umuahia North local Government area of Abia State. The specific objectives were to determine the timing ofinitiation of complementary feeding, to examine the complementary feeding practices and to assess the minimum dietary diversity and minimum acceptable diet of the infants in the study area. The study is a cross sectional study which includes children aged 6-23 months in the study area. The sample for the study was 300 respondents, a multi-stage sampling technique were adopted for this study while a well-structured and validated questionnaire was used for the data collection. The study analyzed using Descriptive statistics (frequency and Percentage) was computed for the categorized and continuous variables such as socio-economic demography ofthe respondents, timing ofinitiation of complementary feeding, determine the complementary feeding practices. Household food security access scale was determine using Chi-square to test the level of significance at 0.05. The result showed that 59% of the mothers introduced complementary feeding from 6-11 months, while less than half (33%) ofthe mother initiated complementary feeding from less than 6 months and very few (8%) ofthe mother initiated complementary feeding from 12-23 months. The overall minimum meal frequency was met in (88%) of the participants. Majority (87.6%) had a high dietary diversity score. The result finally revealed that there was a positive relationship (P < 0.01) between body mass index-for-age status and food fussiness ofthe children. The study concludes that importance should be placed on nutritional surveillance, to ascertain suitable intervention to improve the nutritional status of children and to avoid occurrence of malnutrition. The study among others recommended that there should be proper enlightenment on sustainable food and nutrition interventions programmes aimed at improving dietary intake of infants between 6-23 months in other to counter poor nutritional status among the infants.