Letters KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND FEEDING PRACTICES AMONG THE MOTHERS HAVING UNDER-5 CHILDREN

Maternal education is significantly related to early childhood morbidity and mortality. In Bangladesh, most mothers do not have a correct knowledge on exclusive breastfeeding and the appropriate time for introduction of weaning foods; and only 3 % of them know how to prepare proper weaning foods1. Another study conducted in the rural population reported that according to Gomez classification, 96 % of children had varying degrees of protein energy malnutrition (PEM) (28.4 % mild, 58.2 % moderate and 9.2 % severe)2. Timely weaning, education and promotion of essential vaccination may reduce childhood malnutrition, especially severe PEM. It has also been reported that the prevalence of breastfeeding in Bangladesh is one of the highest in the world where diarrheal diseases are hyper-endemic and issues of breastfeeding in several diarrheal diseases have been well documented3. We undertook this study to determine knowledge, attitude and feeding behavior of the mothers in a rural community