Infants' complementary feeding and factors influencing its timing

The aim of our study was to detect factors that influence timing and adequacy of complementary feeding (CF) practices in Georgian families. The study was conducted at M. Iashvili Central Children's Hospital Child Developmental Center in 2013-2014 year. The data was collected from 389 mothers of infants' age ranging from six months to one year. Results of the study show that CF was started in time only in 30,2%, In 18,1% it was CF was introduced too early (<4 month), in 27,3 early (4-6 month) and in 11% - late. 13.4% of children haven't started CF at all. Most of mothers received information about CF and semi-solid and solid food used for CF from pediatricians and family-doctors. Timing of complementary feeding was related to maternal age, young mothers started CF too early, early or late. In urban areas early CF was significantly high (51.1%) than in rural (29.7%) areas (P<0,05). Proportionally employed mothers and students also started CF earlier (51.4%) than housewives (33%) (P<0.01). Mothers who had 2 and more child introduced CF timely compared to those who had the first child (P<0.01). Our research study showed that educated women started complementary feeding of their infants at appropriate ages as compared to those who were uneducated (P<0.001) among women who introduced CF in time most were educated (91%). The data from the study shows that many infants are beginning complementary feeding earlier than WHO recommends (6 month). Findings from our study revealed that maternal knowledge, age, education level was directly related with timing of CF. Promotion of strong community based education and support to ensure optimal infant and young child feeding is recommended.