Pre-lacteal feeding practices among newborn in urban slums of Lucknow city UP, India

Aim: To study the Practices of Pre-lacteal feeding among Newborns in Urban slums of Lucknow city. Setting and Design: A cross-sectional study in Urban slums of Lucknow city, UP. Methods and Material: A cross-sectional study in Urban slums of Lucknow city, UP included 524 women who had a live birth during last one year preceding data collection. A pre-desined and pretested questionnaire was used for data collection. Statistical Analysis Used: The data was tabulated on Microsoft Excel sheet and analyzed using the software SPSS 10.0 for Windows and Discrete data were analyzed using the chi-square test. Results: Study findings showed that Half (50.6%) of the mothers had given pre-lacteal feedings to their newborn. Out of those who had given pre-lacteal feed, 55.1 percent had given mugli ghutti/griipe water and 49.4 percent had given boiled water as pre-lacteal feed Only mother’s education (p < 0.01), father’s education (p < 0.001) and socioeconomic status (p < 0.05) were statistically associated with the practice of giving prelecteal feeding. Conclusion: It was concluded that maternal knowledge and awareness of correct feeding practices is essential for the normal growth, health and well being of the children. We therefore suggested that the primary focus of various nutrition related national programs in India for children should aim at imparting nutrition and health education to the mothers.