Nutritional Deficiencies, the Absence of Information and Caregiver Shortcomings: A Qualitative Analysis of Infant Feeding Practices in Rural China.

Publisher: Public Library of Science Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 101285081 Publication Model: eCollection Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1932-6203 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 19326203 NLM ISO Abbreviation: PLoS One Subsets: MEDLINE

Original Publication: San Francisco, CA : Public Library of Science

Caregivers*; Anemia, Iron-Deficiency/*epidemiology ; Child Development/*physiology ; Child Nutrition Disorders/*epidemiology ; Feeding Behavior/*physiology ; Infant Nutritional Physiological Phenomena/*physiology; Anemia, Iron-Deficiency/physiopathology ; Child Nutrition Disorders/physiopathology ; Child, Preschool ; China/epidemiology ; Female ; Humans ; Infant ; Male ; Nutritional Status ; Prevalence ; Rural Health ; Rural Population ; Socioeconomic Factors

Background and Objectives: Development during the first two years of life is critical and has a lasting impact on a child's health. Poor infant and child nutrition can lead to deficiencies in essential micronutrients, which may cause a weakened immune system and lasting effects on children's growth and development. Recent studies in rural Shaanxi Province found an anemia prevalence of 54.3% among rural children aged six to twelve months. While new large-scale, quantitative research has begun to catalogue the extent of child malnutrition and anemia, no effort has yet been made to look more closely at the potential reasons for rural children's nutritional deficiencies through qualitative analysis. This study aims to elucidate some of the fundamental causes of poor complementary feeding practices that may lead to anemia among children in rural Shaanxi Province, China.
Methodology: We interviewed sixty caregivers participating in a large survey on child health and nutrition. We conducted three waves of interviews with children's primary caregivers in seventeen rural villages within four nationally-designated poverty counties in the southern part of Shaanxi Province.
Results: The qualitative analysis reveals that poor complementary feeding practices are common across our sample. Information gathered from our interviews suggests that complementary feeding practices are impeded by two constraints: absence of understanding topics related to infant health and nutrition under caregivers, as well as inadequate sources of information on these topics. Poverty does not appear to constrain child feeding practices.
Conclusion: Our results uncover lack of proper knowledge on infant and child nutrition among rural caregivers in China. This situation causes them to fail incorporating micronutrient rich foods in their children's diet. Age-appropriate complementary feeding can stimulate children's physical and cognitive development, but in its absence it leads to iron-deficiency anemia. We suggest that steps be taken to educate caregivers to improve complementary feeding of their infants and children.

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Date Created: 20160414 Date Completed: 20160909 Latest Revision: 20240327

20240327

PMC4830571

10.1371/journal.pone.0153385

27073864