Assessment of Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) practices in rural areas of Dehradun, Uttarakhand.

Introduction: The practice of infant and young child feeding (IYCF) is critical for a child's growth and development throughout the first two years of life. Poor feeding habits in early childhood contribute to malnutrition and child mortality in India. Aim and Objective: To assess the IYCF practices in children under the age of 2 years. Material and Methods: In rural Uttarakhand, India, a cross-sectional study was undertaken from March 2021 to May 2021. A probability proportional to size (PPS) method was used to select 400 children under the age of 2 years. The World Health Organization IYCF questionnaire, was used to collect house to house data. An appropriate statistical test was used for analysing the data. Results: According to the findings, 47.5 percent of babies under the age of six months were nursed within the first hour of delivery. About 73.9 percent of babies were exclusively breastfed. Approximately 22 percent infants were given pre-lacteal feeds and 20 percent were bottle fed. In addition to breast milk, half of babies aged 6 to 8 months had solid, semi-solid, or soft meals, however minimum acceptable diet was provided to only 33.5 percent children. Odds of male child who were bottle fed in the age group of 6-23 months were 2.02 times higher to that of female child. Also the odds of male child in the age group of 6-8 months to be introduced with solids, semi-solid, or soft food were 4.91 times higher to that of female child. Similarly, odds of male child received minimum dietary diversity (2.35), minimum meal frequency (1.82), and minimum acceptable diet (2.35) in the age group of 6-23 months were found to be higher to that of female child in the similar age group. Total of six mothers reported coronavirus disease (COVID) positive status and only two of them breastfed their babies using COVID appropriate behavior. Conclusion: Exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) has been practiced in more than two-thirds of children, but early breastfeeding is practised in less than half of children. Only one third children of more than six months of age are getting minimum acceptable diet.