Early initiation of breast feeding in tribal children

Background: The World Health Organization recommends provision of mother’s breast milk to infants within one hour of birth. Despite this, the national data suggest only 40.8% infants were put to breast within one hour of birth and these figures are considerably lower among the tribal population. The objectives were to find out the proportion and socio-demographic factors associated with early initiation of breast feeding among tribal children aged 0-23 months residing in tea gardens of Jalpaiguri district, West Bengal, India. Methods:  A community-based cross-sectional study was undertaken among 219 tribal children aged 0-23 months in two tea gardens of Jalpaiguri district, West Bengal. The mothers of the selected children were interviewed and information on gender of child, socio-economic and educational status of the mother; feeding history and feeding practices of children was collected. Binary logistic regression was performed for statistical analysis using SPSS version 20. Results: The proportion of breast feeding initiation within one hour of birth was 68.5%. The odds of early initiation of breastfeeding was found to be higher among male infants those belonging to Hindu families and upper socio-economic status, whose mothers were more educated and among those who were delivered at any health institution than their counterparts. Conclusions:  The results signify that early initiation of breastfeeding was suboptimal. Therefore, efforts should also be made to increase the awareness of infant and child feeding practices for improved health status of the children of the tribal population.