Comparison of Complementary Feeding Practices by Mothers of Children between 6 and 12 Months of Age Attending Outpatient Departments of Government and Private Hospitals in Central Gujarat

Introduction:Appropriate feeding practices should be followed up in patients attending government as well as private facilities to achieve the desired results.Objectives: To compare complementary feeding practices by mothers of 6-to 12-month-old infants attending government and private hospitals and to identify factors associated with complementary feeding practices.Materials and methods: An analytical cross-sectional study was carried out to compare complementary feeding practices employed by mothers attending government and private pediatrics outpatient departments.Mothers of infants aged 6-12 months were purposively selected.The total sample size was 362, with 181 mothers selected from each study setting.For data collection, the EpiCollect5 mobile-based data collection tool was used.Data were analyzed using Chi-square test, and multivariate analysis was done using logistic regression.Results: Complementary feeding was started at 6 months in 56.35% of infants in government and 65.74% of infants in private setup (p-value: 0.0078).Mothers attending private hospitals (49.17%) were more likely to provide a minimum acceptable diet than mothers attending government hospitals (34.81%) (p-value: 0.006).Mothers attending government settings that provided food that met minimum acceptable standards were associated with maternal age of 30 years and above (p-value: 0.006) and maternal education up to graduate level (p-value: 0.023).Among mothers attending private hospitals, it was associated with maternal education up to graduate level (p-value: 0.008).Conclusion: Mothers attending private hospitals were more likely to provide a minimum acceptable diet than mothers from government hospitals.In both study settings, high maternal education was associated with providing a diet that met minimum acceptable standards.