A study to assess the knowledge on weaning practice among postnatal mothers

The purpose of the study was to assess the knowledge regarding weaning among the working mothers and to ind the association between the level of knowledge regarding weaning among mothers of infant with their selected demographic variables. Descriptive approach will be used to conduct the study. Non experimental descriptive design will be adopted for the study. Study was conducted in selected area at kuthambakkam. The mothers who are having infants and residing in kuthambakkam. The mother who has only one baby, whose age is less than one year, was the study samples. The sample size was 30 mothers of infant. The sampling technique adopted for the study was non probability purposive sampling. Regarding demographic data 25 (83.33%) women are between the age of 24-30 years, most of them are having 1-2 (86.66%) number of children. Family status in that 27 (90%) of the women they are in middle class family and the religious 20(66.66%) of the women they are in Hindu. Out of 30 women in that 21 (70) of the women they are having female baby. Regarding the level of knowledge 22 (73.33%) women’s are having adequate knowledge, 5(16.66%) women’s are havingmoderate knowledge and then3(10%)women’s are having inadequate knowledge. The association was done by using chi-square test there is signi icant association between knowledge with variable education and occupation at p = (0.05) signi icant levels. There is no signi icant difference with other demographic variables.


INTRODUCTION
Having a baby at home is a wonderful experience. Looking after the baby and caring for it's an even more ful illing experience. There are several important stages in an infant's growth. But one of the most important aspects, and often misunderstood stage, is that of weaning. Weaning, which is often referred to as "mixed feeding", proceeds in stages from liquids to solids, and from one method of feeding to another. Weaning is a gradual process, extending from the time when baby is solely breast fed, until he is feeding entirely on the adult diet. From an average weight of 3 kilos at birth, baby's weight increases almost to 5 kilos, at the end of 3 months. In fact, from birth to 1 year is the time of fastest growth for the baby. Milk alone cannot fully meet the baby's needs and sustain this rapid rate of grow (Sheth and Dwivedi, 2006).
Weaning should be started at a suitable time. Mixed feeding may be introduced early into an infant's diet (say from 2 months after birth) depending on the infant's growth pattern. Also, it's easier to get babies    accustomed to new foods earlier than when they grow older. However, weaning should de initely start around 3 months (Walker et al., 2006).
Breast feeding provides an unparalleled manner to supply complete and ideal nourishment for the infant in the beginning of life. Although, some studies show that exclusive breast feeding for more than 6 months may also increase malnutrition. At this age breast-milk alone is not enough to meet the needs of infant. Ideally, an infant should be exclusively breast fed for 6 months followed by additional foods being gradually introduced (Saka et al., 2005).
Infants and young children are at an increased risk of malnutrition from six months of age onwards, when breast milk alone is no longer suf icient to meet all their nutritional requirements and complementary feeding should be started. Hence this study was undertaken to assess the practices of complementary feeding (Fabbiani et al., 2009).
Weaning period is the most important period in child's development; at the age of one year, the child should receive solid foods consisting of cereals, pulses, vegetables, and fruits. In India; it is traditional practice 80% of homemade foods are fed to the babies especially in rural areas over a prolonged period. 90% arti icial baby food like, cerelac are preferred by urban societies. In India it was found only 33.5% were given semi solid food at 6 to9 months and 32.6% were giving semisolid food at 4to6 months (Chinnasamy et al., 2016).
World Breast feedings patterns activity (WBTI) features the signi icance of nourishing in guaranteeing the youngster well being and decreasing baby and kid's death pace of 56 for each 1000 live births. In the world over 10% of 5.8 billion people are children under 5 years of age, and over 10.5 million deaths occur each year among children of under ive years of age. (Sheth and Dwivedi, 2006) Two thirds of these deaths occur during the irst year of life and are closely associated with poor breast feeding and poor complementary feeding practices. (Fabbiani et al., 2009) Underweight was estimated to cause 3.7 million deaths. This accounted for about 1 in 15 deaths globally. WHO has estimated that approximately 27% (168 million) of children under ive years of age are underweight especially in the weaning and post weaning period of 6 -24 months (Effect of breastfeeding on infant and child mortality due to infectious diseases in less developed countries, 2000).
Following a half year, breast milk alone doesn't give every one of the supplements to developing infant needing speci ic iron and calories strong nourishments give. For different wellsprings of sustenance, attempt to steadily present semi strong or strong nourishments to infant. Consequently weaning gives youngster a wholesome parity to appropriate development and development (Pandey et al., 2015).
As indicated by WHO criteria, 22.7% of the babies were pallid at 8 months and 18.1% at a year. More bosom than equation sustained babies were weak at 8 and a year. Dairy animals' milk as the fundamental beverage was related with expanded frailty at a year and low ferritin at 8 and 12 months. The pervasiveness of pallor in offspring of age 6months-1 year in urban ghettos of Meerut was 59.9%. As indicated by world face book 2010 estimation India is having most noteworthy IMR 50.78/1000 live births, among that Karnataka place top in south Indian states 43/1000 live births, contrasted and 38/1000 live births in Maharashtra and 30/1000 live births in Tamil Nadu (Ekambaram et al., 2010). WHO (2000WHO ( -2004 recommends a gradual weaning period from 6 months to 2 years and allows the child to receive the bene its of breast feeding, while also consuming the necessary nutrients from the complementary foods. Poor infant feeding prac-tices (IFP) directly or indirectly contribute to under nutrition, morbidity and mortality in infants. The proportion of underweight, stunting and wasting among under 3years children have been reported to 47 percent, 45 percent and 16 percent respectively at the National level. So, good feeding and weaning practice is an important factor for under 1year of age because weaning period is the most crucial period in child development. Late examinations have perceived the connection among ailing health and kid encouraging practices and weaning (Maiti et al., 2015).
Infant feeding practices constitute a major component in child care. Despite global efforts for improving maternal and child health and speci ic efforts like integrated child development services (ICDS), malnutrition among children remains a signi icant problem in India. In 2005 in India 33.5% infant were given semisolid food at 6to9 months. Range was from 72.9% in Kerala, 17.5% in Rajasthan and 17.3% in Uttarpradesh. In all major states in Kerala urban 72.9% and rural69.3% Tamil nadu urban 55.4% and rural 56.5%, Andrapradesh urban 59.4% and rural 47.8%, Himachal Pradesh urban 61.3% and rural 39.9% and Delhi urban37.0% and rural 25.1% more than 50% of infants of age 6to9 months were not receiving semisolid food in other states (Upadhye et al., 2018). (Singh et al., 2006) conducted a study on "Infant feeding and weaning practices" in semi-arid rural areas of Rajasthan. The indings have been drawn from 328 rural mothers. They practiced weaning at 27 months which not only affects the health status of mothers and their children but also leads to under nutrition. The indings of the study necessitate to evolve an exhaustive educative programme dealing with various aspects of infant feeding and weaning practices (Singh et al., 2006). (Kumar et al., 2006) to study the nutritional status of under-ive children and to assess whether infant feeding practices are associated with the undernutrition in anganwari (AW) areas of urban AllahabadAmong all under ive children surveyed, 36.4% underweight (<2SD weight-for-age), 51.6% stunted (<2SD height-forage), and 10.6% wasted (<2SD weight-for-height). Proportions of underweight (45.5%) and stunting (81.8%) were found maximum among children aged 13-24 months. Wasting was most prevalent (18.2%) among children aged 37-48 months. Initiation of breast-feeding after six hours of birth, deprivation from colostrum and improper complementary feeding were found signi icant (P<0.05) risk factors for underweight. Wasting was not signi icantly associated (P>0.10) with any infant feeding practice studied. ICDS bene its received by chil-dren failed to improve the nutritional status of children (Kumar et al., 2006).

MATERIALS AND METHODS
A quantative approach with Descriptive research design was used to conduct the study. Study was conducted in kuthambakkam The samples are the mothers who are having infants and residing in kuthambakkam. The mothers who has a baby, whose age is less than one year. The sample size was 30 mothers. The sampling technique adopted for the study was non probability purposive sampling. The Inclusion Criteria was Mothers who has infants. Mothers who are available at the time of the study. Mothers who understand Tamil. The data was collected by using questionnaire. The collected data was analyzed by using the appropriate descriptive and inferential statistics method.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Regarding demographic data (83%) women are comes under the category of age between 24-30 years. (86.6%) of mothers are having 1-2 number of children. (90%) of the women they are comes under middle class family. Regarding religion majority 20(66.66%) of the women are Hindus. Regarding feeding 46.6% of infants are fed by the grandmother and others by father. Regarding the age of infants. Majority 46.6%of infants are 8-10months,40% infants were 11-12 months and remaining are 6-8 months.
This study results shows that 22 (73.33%) women are having adequate knowledge, 5(16.66%) women are having moderate knowledge and remaining 3(10%) women are having inadequate knowledge. (Table 1 & Figure 1) The association was done by using chi-square test there is signi icant association between knowledge with variable education and occupation at p = (0.05) signi icant levels. There is no signi icant difference regarding others demographic variables. (Table 2)

CONCLUSIONS
The study concluded that 22 (73.33%) women are having adequate knowledge, 5(16.66%) women are having moderate knowledge and remaining 3(10%) women are having inadequate knowledge. If there is a good weaning practices for the children. They will achieve good growth and development.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Authors would like to appreciate participants for their cooperation to complete the study successfully.

Con licts of interest
The authors declare no con licts of interest.