Abstract:
Breast milk is the safest and most natural food for an infant and provides complete nutritional needs up to six months of age. It is important for growth and reduces infant morbidity and mortality. Exclusive breastfeeding reduces malnutrition and other health problems. The main objective of this study was to determine factors associated with exclusive breastfeeding among mothers with children aged six months and below attending Baringo referral hospital, Kabarnet-Kenya. This was cross-sectional design was conducted among mothers of children aged six months and below has the study population. Questionnaire was used for data collection method. A sample size of 330 was collected using purposive sampling. Data from the questionnaires were coded and entered into a computer using statistical package for social sciences and analyzed using the same software, fisher’s exact test was used to test significance. The results showed that 95.8% of the mothers breastfed their babies with 2.2% exclusively breastfeeding up to six months of age. Delay in the onset of breastfeeding, early use of pre-lacteal feeds was practiced. The findings showed that mothers perceived the following as barriers to exclusive breastfeeding; work demand, insufficient breast milk, insufficient information on exclusive breastfeeding, baby refusing to breastfeed, mother or baby being sick, and distance to the workplace, cultural beliefs, advice from relatives and friends. Fisher’s exact test showed that level of education, the number of children of the mother, mode of delivery, ante-natal visits and reason for not breastfeeding exclusively were significant with exclusive breastfeeding at P ≤ 0.05. Infants should be breastfed within an hour of birth, on demand and up to the first six months of age. This study could help mothers, Ministry of Health and other non-governmental organizations working with child health programs, in likely interventions and supporting the ongoing child survival programs in enhancing exclusive breastfeeding. As mothers attend ante-natal and post- natal clinics, they should be given brochures which are simple and clearly understood addressing concerns on cultural beliefs, negative attitudes and breastfeeding problems. Also, support groups should be formed to educate the illiterate mothers.
