Breastfeeding Practices, Demographic Variables, and Their Association with Morbidities in Children

Table 1

Sociodemographic variables.

Sociodemographic variable	Frequency
Age (years) of the mothers, mean (SD)	27.18 (3.77), range: 19 to 42 years
Mother’s education less than 4th standard	109 of 780 (13.97%)
Low birth weight children	195 of 768 (25.4%)
Monthly family income less than Rs. 15000	570 of 765 (74.5%)
Multiparous mothers	431 of 777 (55.5%)
Number of children who required hospitalization	327 of 781 (41.9%)
Number of children who had diarrhea	482 of 781 (61.7%)
Number of children who had cough-cold	606 of 780 (77.6%)
Multifetal pregnancy	17 of 778 (2.2%)
Number of mothers who had problems during breastfeeding during first 6 months after delivery	120 of 771 (15.6%)
Family support for breastfeeding	76 of 766 (10%)
Male gender	476 of 780 (61%)
Bottle feeding	142 of 771 (18.4%)
Employed women	138 of 779 (17.7%)
Hindu religion	653 of 779 (83.8%)
Started breastfeeding within 1st hour of delivery	443 of 771 (57.5%)
Age of the child (of total 767)
Less than 6 months	60 (7.8%)
6 months to 24 months	420 (54.8%)
More than 24 months	287 (37.4%)
Use of soap to wash hands for children more than 6 months before feeding	404 of 687 (58.8%)
Washing utensils after each feed	532 of 697 (76.3%)
Washing hand of mother before each feed for children more than 6 months age	499 of 692 (72.1%)
Who feeds the child more than 6 months
Mother	600 (86.3%)
Other person	95 (13.7%)
Exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months in children more than 2 years	160 of 286 (55.9%)
Breastfeeding stopped less than 2 years of age in children more than 2 years	253 of 284 (89.1%)