"Knowledge and Attitude regarding Weaning among Mothers of Infants in selected areas of Gurugram, Haryana, India"

Introduction: The weaning period is a crucial time in an infant’s life since it not only involves a great deal of rapid change for the child, but it is also associated with the development of food preferences, eating behaviors and body weight in childhood, adolescence as well as in adulthood. Weaning too early may cause baby at higher risk of developing digestive disorders and adverse reactions or allergies to certain foods. On the other hand, weaning too late may deprive adequate nutrition and can result in improper growth and development. Objectives: To assess the knowledge & attitude regarding weaning among the mothers of infants. To find out the correlation between knowledge and attitude regarding weaning among the mothers of infants. Setting and participants:The study was conducted among 100 mothers who are having 6-24 months children who are attending Primary Health Centre of Gurugram, Haryana. Methodology: A structured knowledge questionnaire, socio-demographic variable and attitude scale on weaning was used to collect data from 100 mothers. Results: Most of the mothers had heard about weaning practice, 70% of mothers of infants having average knowledge whereas 15% were having adequate knowledge and 15% were inadequate knowledge regarding weaning. 54% of mothers of infants were having favourable attitude, 40% were having moderate attitude and 6% were having unfavourable attitude. The mean knowledge score was 19. The mean attitude score was 53.73.The standard deviation of knowledge of mothers of infants was 4.1008. The standard deviation of attitude of mothers of infants was 15.598. The significant association between the level of knowledge and attitude of the mothers of infants. The correlation coefficients between knowledge and attitude of mothers of infants was 0.12. Conclusion: The study has found that still there are mothers who are unaware about the healthy weaning practices or techniques. Hence it is important to provide parental education regarding weaning in order to reduce the mortality and morbidity rate and to promote the infant nutritional status.