Infant-feeding practices in urban and rural communities of the Sudan

Infant-feeding and weaning practices were investigated in a multistage randomly selected sample of 1,039 Sudanese mothers who represented six of the nine States of the Sudan. The majority (77.9%) believed that breast milk was best for their babies, emphasizing the previously reported high breast-feeding rate in Sudanese mothers. Food supplementation started by 6 months in 82.5% mainly in urban middle and high classes (UMC and UHC) compared to urban poor class (UPC) and the rural group (RG; p < 0.001). A mixture of food items was used for supplementation by 62.1% of the study group, whereas giving one food item was significantly more practised in RG (54.9%) compared to others (p < 0.001). Household food was introduced by 6 months in 35.4%. Weaning started between 6 and 12 months in 27.1% and thereafter in 64.9%. A greater proportion of rural mothers (36.5%) weaned their babies after the age of 18 months (p < 0.001). About half the children (52.8%) were weaned abruptly, mainly among UPC and RG. The first food item of choice for weaning was fresh goat's or cow's milk (77.6%), followed by powdered or formula milk (16.1%). The commonest second preferred food was a starch gruel (39.1%) made either of rice (24.5%) or fermented sorghum.