Assessment of Knowledge and Practice on Breast Feeding Among Mothers of Children Aged Less Than Two Years and Associated Factors in Areka Town, Wolita Zone, Southern Ethiopia, 2018

World health organization guideline recommend that continuous frequent and on-demand breast feeding until two years of age and beyond is essential for the child as well as the mother. Breast feeding aids general health, growth and development of the children. This study will Asses knowledge and practice on breast feeding among mothers of children aged less than two years and associated factors in Araka town, Woliat zone,South Ethiopia community based cross sectional study was conduct among 286 mothers in Areka town on May 2018. By using simple random sampling technique1 kebele was selected from 4 kebeles of Areka town and lottery method was used to get required sample size. structured questionnaire was used for collecting data from respondents .The data was analyzed and processed by SPSS window version 18 and presented in the form of percentage, proportions, and narrative sand associations are identified. From the total of 274 mothers, 56.6% of the mothers have good knowledge about the benefits of breast-feeding 43.6% poor knowledge about child breast feeding. From the total of 274,132 (48.2%) have good practice of breast feeding and 142(51.2%) mothers have poor practice of breast feeding. multivariate logistic regression analysis showed mothers of age20-24 and mothers of age 30-34 practiced appropriate breastfeeding less likely than mothers with age greater than 35 years of age. Mothers who attended higher education were more knowledgeable when compared to mothers not attended formal education. Mothers who are government employ are more likely know about importance of breast feed as compared to students. The result of this study demonstrated that more than half of mothers of children under two years of age have good knowledge about benefit of breast feeding and less than half of respondent have good practice of breast feeding. Keywords: Breast feeding, knowledge, practice DOI: 10.7176/JHMN/88-01 Publication date: April 30th 202