Parental attitudes towards children (0 to 6 years old) feeding practices and preferences on baby food products

Cheah, Pi Chuey (2006) Parental attitudes towards children (0 to 6 years old) feeding practices and preferences on baby food products. Universiti Malaysia Sabah. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

A survey was carried out in the district of Kota Bharu, Kelantan to study the recent trends of infant feeding practices among parents, to determine the factors that influence infant feeding practices among parents and to evaluate attributes that influence parental purchase decision on baby food where 493 parents were interviewed and their socio-demographic information were recorded. Data on infant feeding practices were collected from mothers who had children from birth to 6 years of age. A total of 55.2% (n=272) mothers breast-fed their infant and 21.9% mixed-fed, followed by 11.8% formulated for the first 6 months. Among the parents, only 2.8% of parent exclusively breast-fed their child for duration of 1-3 weeks. It is noted that there is a significantly association between maternal age (x2= 57.787, df=9, p<0.05), educational level (x2=54.079, df=12, p<0.05), occupation (x2= 132.590, df=24, p<0.05) and household income (X2= 45.854, df= 12, p<0.05) and number of child (X2= 80.343, df=9, p<0.05) with choice of infant feeding practice for the first 6 months . A majority of parents introduced complementary food at the age of 4 months and 5 months and the first food given was rice porridge (52.7%). The remaining parents 52.7% introduced commercial baby food to their child. Nurse (49.3%) and family members (32.7%) were the most important source of information regarding infant feeding practices. The main criteria that parents take into consideration while purchasing milk formula are price (78.7%), packaging (55.8%) and nutritional value (49.5%). Principal component analysis shows that convenience (25.5%), health consciousness (20.0%) and price (16.3%) are important in the purchasing criteria. The findings of the study concluded that although breast-feeding is widely practiced, however the practice of exclusive breastfeeding is not well practice and early introduction of solids is widespread.

Item Type: Academic Exercise
Keyword: infant feeding practice, influence, purchase decision, breastfeeding
Subjects: T Technology > TX Home economics > TX1-1110 Home economics > TX341-641 Nutrition. Foods and food supply
Department: SCHOOL > School of Food Science and Nutrition
Depositing User: SITI AZIZAH BINTI IDRIS -
Date Deposited: 22 Oct 2013 14:55
Last Modified: 17 Oct 2017 12:40
URI: https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/7348

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