Infant feeding practices in the first two years of life of nursing mothers living with HIV attending general hospitals in Benue State, Nigeria

Background: World Health Organization recommends that all the nursing mothers irrespective of their health status should breast feed exclusively. Mothers living with HIV have a choice to balance between the nutritional and other benefits of breast feeding with the risks of transmitting HIV to their infants and choose between exclusive breast feeding and replacement feeding.Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the infant feeding practices of nursing mothers living with HIV in Benue State.Methods: The study was carried out in three (3) General Hospitals in Benue state. It was a cross sectional study of 780 nursing mothers living with HIV with babies less than 2 years of age attending HIV/AIDS treatment centers using a semi-structured questionnaire. Data obtained was analyzed using IBM SPSS for windows, version 21.0. Descriptive statistics was carried out and the results were presented in frequencies, means and percentages.Results: Majority (52.8%) of the respondents were in the age brackets of 21-30, a good number (71.3%) were married, only 50.8% had secondary education. More than three quarter of the respondents (81.9%) practiced exclusive breast feeding, while none breast fed beyond 17 months. As many as (34% of the mothers)were using feeding bottles.Conclusion: The study revealed that a very high percentage of the mothers living with HIV practiced exclusive breast feeding (EBF) but none of the nursing mothers studied continued breast feeding their babies beyond 17 months.Keywords: Infant, feeding practice, mothers living with HIV, Benue state,-Nigeri