Public Health

Proper Infant and young child feeding is crucial for growth and development of an infant and child under two years. In Bangladesh government has taken many initiatives for improving nutritional status of children less than two years. One of them is mass media campaign. To evaluate the effectiveness of media campaign on Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) in rural Bangladesh. An ecological study was conducted in a rural setting of Bangladesh during 2011. Higher proportion of mothers in intervention area had the right knowledge on initiation of breastfeed-ing and right practice was also found better in intervention area (p=0.003). Compare to control correct knowledge of exclusive breastfeeding found significantly higher (p=0.02) in intervention area. Better EBF practice was found in intervention area, it was 79 % and 71 % in intervention and control area respectively. Compare to control area, significantly higher proportion of mothers in intervention area had correct knowledge of adequacy of breast milk till six month of child (P=0.000). Right knowledge regarding way of increase breast milk supply was also found significantly higher in intervention area (P=0.003). Correct knowledge regarding initiation of complementary feeding found significantly higher in intervention area (p=0.012), proportions were 53 % and 41 % in intervention and control area respectively. Animal food feeding practice was found higher in intervention area (P=0.015). Bot