A Study to Assess Knowledge and Attitude Regarding Infant Feeding Practices Among Mothers Attending Family Clinic and OPD of Tertiary Care Hospital in South Mumbai

Background The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life, with the addition of complementary feeding at six months with continued breastfeeding until at least at age two1 .Infants and young children are at an increased risk of malnutrition from six months of age onwards, when breast milk alone is no longer sufficient to meet all their needs and complimentary feeding should be started2 . Abandonment of breastfeeding by mothers due to various reasons leads to improper nutritional status of the child 3 .  Methodology A descriptive approach using convenient sampling technique was used. The data was collected by structured interview tool from mothers who attended the family clinics and OPD of the hospital.  Results It was found that 88% of mothers have knowledge that the first feed of the baby is breast milk and 54.04% of them fed their babies two hourly. Only 76.10% had fulfilled the criteria of exclusive breast feeding. There is no significant relation between knowledge and demographic variables like parity and mother’s education (p value >0.05).  Conclusion The study finding implies that all mothers received adequate information regarding infant feeding practices from community resources. It is recommended to place emphasis on educating the mothers on certain areas where knowledge was found to be below expectation.