EXPLORING MOTHERS’ PERCEPTION ABOUT NUTRITION FOR CHILDREN BETWEEN 6 AND 24 MONTHS IN SLUMS OF DHAKA CITY

Early Childhood Development

Nutrition is a fundamental pillar of whole development of human life throughout the entire life span commencing from conception. It has profound importance in developing the fetus in the womb with normal genetic programming and growth. Under nutrition leads to poor health, through reducing immunity and increasing susceptibility to disease; to lower educational attainment, through impaired physical and mental development; and to reduced productivity and earning potential. Optimal nutrition is essential for survival, physical growth and mental development, good health and overall wellbeing of children. Infants and young children grow rapidly at age 6 to 24 months and need high nutrition to meet up additional requirement for their continued growth. Nearly all forms of under nutrition are significantly higher in urban slum population. Only 1 in 4 children aged 6-24 months in slums are fed with appropriate infant and young child feeding practices. It is significantly importance to get nutrition right for children aged 6-24 months for supporting appropriate growth and development. Most of the cognitive and physical damage or under development happens from conception to second birthday of the children [37]. With the above context, the current study has been conducted under the Institute of Educational Development, BRAC University to know mother’s perception on nutrition for children aged 6 to 24 months living in slums of Dhaka city. For the purpose, the qualitative research method was undertaken. This qualitative study was conducted on 12 mothers living in slums of Dhaka city who were selected purposively from two slums. Each of mothers had children between 6 and 24 months. The research investigated qualitative aspects of the respondents selected purposefully through two Focus Group Discussion and four In-Depth Interview using guidelines for Focus Group Discussion and In-Depth Interview respectively. This study examined slum dwelling mother’s perception on nutrition for their children at age 6 to 24 months. Mother’s perceptions on nutrition vary according to their culture, values, and socio-economic conditions. The findings of the research showed that mother’s perceptions on nutrition for children aged between 6 and 24 months are positive and they understand that optimal nutrition is essential for development of child at this age. All mothers (12 out of 12) participated in the study understand child development as proper physical and cognitive development of child, the ability of moving and to response in someone’s call and good state of their health. They think that child development depends on nutritious food, proper feeding and caring of children. The mothers participated in In-Depth Interview opined that nutrition ensures children’s growth, builds up their knowledge and plays vital role in preventing disease prevalence among the children. Mothers also highlighted that the nutrition for children of this age is ensured by breastfeeding, khichuri-mixture of rice and dal and snacks. All the mothers participated in the study had the knowledge of foods that provide nutrition for the children. They mentioned breast milk, rice, sweet gourd, spinach, dal, fish, chicken’s liver, egg, iodized salt, and bananas as nutritious foods. Some of mothers had the idea of Khichuri-mixture of rice and dal; majority of the mothers (11 out of 12) had the idea of smashed rice and dal, as the source of nutrition for the children between 6 and 24 months. Half of the mothers could mention about some nutritional elements like Vitamins, Iron, Iodine of foods provided to children. But none of the mothers could mention which food contains which specific nutritional element. All mothers participated in In-Depth Interview were still continuing breast feeding for their children though their children were at the age between 7-12 months and breast milk would be continued up to when it is required by the child. Almost all mothers were used to provide rice and dal smashed together or vegetables, fish or chicken, chicken liver whatever is cooked for family as complementary food for their children. Few of mothers sometimes provided Khichuri - a mixture of rice and dal, cooked together as complementary food. In addition, children were provided with bananas, biscuits, cakes, fruits/fruit’s juice, eggs, wheat bran cooked with milk and sugar (semolina) as complementary food. Half of the mothers used Pustikona, a packed complementary food item produced by BRAC with the cooked foods for the children. All of mothers were used to provide complementary food 3 times as meal each day-in the morning, at noon and in the evening and 2 times as snacks a day-one in between meal in the morning and lunch at noon; another in between lunch and dinner in the evening. The key findings of this study revealed mothers had positive understanding towards nutrition for their children aged between 6 and 24 months as they realized that nutrition is important for overall development of the children. All mothers had the idea about benefits of providing optimal nutrition and harms of providing inadequate nutrition for the children. Some of mothers did not have idea of nutritional elements of the foods provided to children for their nutrition and none of the mothers did not mention about particular nutritional elements of particular foods. So, mothers needed to be made aware of infants and young child’s nutritional issues to improve their knowledge so that they can use this knowledge to help better growth and development of their children aged between 6 and 24 months.

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