Feeding practices among under-two years old children: A comparison between lowland and upland Ilonggo mothers

• Main Author: Echalar, Desiree D.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2010
• Subjects: Infants—Nutrition—Philippines—Iloilo; Toddlers—Food; Iloilo (Philippines)—Social life and customs; Medicine and Health
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/6133; https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/context/etd_masteral/article/13161/viewcontent/CDTG004807_P.pdf
• Institution: De La Salle University

This study explores the feeding practices and the factors affecting these practices of lowland and upland Ilonggo mothers in the rural area of North Cotabato through a qualitative in-depth interview with 20 key informants with children aged under-two years old. The results of the study suggest that lowland mothers performed better practices than upland mothers in terms of breastfeeding and supplementary feeding. Majority of the lowland mothers practiced early initiation, exclusive and longer duration of breastfeeding while most of the upland mothers failed to meet these three requirements in successful breastfeeding. On supplementary feeding, diet of most upland children is considered poor in quality, i.e, monotonous and mostly carbohydrates while deficient in other sources of nutrients. On factors affecting feeding practices, findings reveal that age and occupation of mothers appeared to have affected their practices. In terms of level of maternal autonomy, not much difference is observed between lowland and upland mothers. Both groups of informants enjoy a relatively high level of maternal autonomy but other factors owing to geographical setting difference such distance of the market, limited income and food availability prevent upland mothers to fully exercise their autonomy over various child care practices. Furthermore, results would show that upland mothers have limited access to sources of information on child feeding especially the formal ones like barangay nutrition programs and health personnel. On the nutritional status of lowland and upland children, result of the 2010 Operation Timbang showed that majority of the children included in this study are within the normal nutritional status while others are within the underweight category. Increasing access to health information and services, creating more job opportunities to increase household income and building better transportation facilities will improve the feeding practices of upland mothers and the nutritional status of their children. Further studies which include utilization of other research methods are recommended to fully establish and understand the relationship between quality and quantity of dietary intake with child’s nutritional status.