The level of child-caretakers' knowledge about weaning food

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: It is an important task to give adequate nutritions to infants and to wean properly for rapid growth during infancy. Adequate behavior requires precise knowledge. This study was conducted to assess the level of child-caretakers' knowledge about weaning food which is essential to infants' healthy growth. METHODS: From April to June, 1997, we acquired 156 child-caretakers who visited a family medicine clinic in Kyungju and a pediatric clinic in Taegu(from 2months old to 6 years old) medical care. They were asked respond to the pre-made questionnaire. The data were coded and analyzed using Excel and SPSS/PC(version 7.0). Student's t-test was used to test the score difference between two groups by general characteristics. RESULTS: The proportion of correct answers to the question concerning the definition of weaning, was 66.7% ; on proper feeding method when infants do not accept weaning food. 18.5% ; on startion time of weaning food, 64.1% ; on the interval to add new ingredient, 23.1% ; on the sequence of feeding weaning food compared to milk or breast milk. 56.4% ; on How to prepare commercial weaning food, 54.5% ; and to the question in the completing time of weaning food, the proportion of correct answers was 19.2%. The main information sources on weaning food were books and magazines related to child care and rearing(50.6%). The total average score was 4.6/1.0. CONCLUSION: There are many child-caretakers who misunderstand the knowledge of weaning food. Therefore, primary care physician plays an important role in the education of child-caretakers on weaning food.