Lactating mothers from low-income settings are considered as a nutritionally vulnerable group. Due to the nursing process, mothers are subjected to nutritional stresses. Frequent pregnancies followed by lactation increase the health risk of mothers resulting in a high maternal mortality.

In Ethiopia national breastfeeding practice is poor because of traditional and cultural beliefs, low educational levels, heavy workload of mothers, poor sanitary conditions, type of assistance at delivery, duration of stay at home, ethnicity, poor maternal knowledge, age, parity, antenatal service utilization and place of delivery. This study is aimed to assess the prevalence and determinants of exclusive breastfeeding practice in mothers in Enderta woreda (district), Ethiopia. A community based cross-sectional study with multistage sampling method was used to select 541 mothers with children less than 24 months of age in Enderta woreda. Data was collected by administered structured questionnaire. Bivariate and Multivariable logistic regression was used to check the associations and controlling confounding variables. A total of 530 mothers were included with a response rate 98%. The mean (± SD) age of the mothers was 26.9 (± 5.98) years. Majority of the mothers (70.2%) were practiced exclusive breastfeeding. Age of the mother (AOR 0.12; 95% CI: 0.02, 0.97), age of the child (AOR 0.52 95% CI: 0.27, 0.99) and postnatal care (AOR; 2.68; 95% CI: 1.44, 4.98) were found statistically significant with exclusive breastfeeding. The prevalence rate of exclusive breastfeeding was high in Enderta woreda. The age of the mother, age of the child and receiving postnatal care were the determinant factors for exclusive breastfeeding in the study area.

The Ethiopian regions have a relatively higher prevalence of under-nutrition are found in the lowlands of the country, with the exception of the highlands of Tigiray, where under-nutrition is also prevalent. The intention of this study was to compare anthropometric nutritional status and associated factors of lactating women between lowland and highland communities of district Raya Alamata, Southern Tigiray, Ethiopia. A community based comparative cross-sectional study design was conducted from January 27–March 7, 2014. Sample size was determined by two population estimation formula. The total calculated sample size was 456. A stratified sampling technique was used to stratify the study area to highland and lowland. Study participants were selected by simple random sampling technique. Data were collected using anthropometric measurements and structured questionnaire. The raw data were entered and analyzed using SPSS version 20.0. Bivariate and multivariable Logistic regression was done to determine the association between explanatory variable with chronic energy deficiency (CED) using body mass index (BMI), by computing odds ratio at 95% confidence level. A P – value <0.05 was considered as statistically significant. The prevalence of CED of lactating mothers from lowland and highland was 17.5% and 24.6% respectively. After multivariable logistic regression: age, husband occupation, taking vitamin A immediately after delivery or within the first 8 weeks after delivery and consumption of extra food during lactation time were factors associated with chronic energy deficiency for lowland lactating women whereas parity, number of meals per day and household consumption of iodized salt were factors associated with chronic energy deficiency for highland lactating women. CED in both comparative studies were a serious public health problem. As it is known food security does not mean nutritionally secured, Therefore, the need to develop nutrition intervention such as nutrition security programs to address under-nutrition in the study area is significant, as it was found food secured participants were slightly vulnerable than food insecure. The dietary diversity score of the participants were very low so that encourage the community about nutrition diversification is substantial for adequate nutrient intake.

Background: Iron deficiency is the most prevalent nutritional deficiency in adolescent girls from the developing world. One of the recommended interventions to improve iron status in adolescent girls is iron supplementation. Yet the provision of iron supplements to adolescent girls proved to be a challenging task for the health systems across the developing world. Objective: The objective of the study was to examine means of reaching adolescent girls for iron supplementation in Northern Ethiopia. Methodology: Analytical cross-sectional study consisting of both quantitative and qualitative approaches to data collection and analysis was used in this study. Stratified multi-stage systematic random sampling technique was adopted and primary quantitative data were collected from 828 (578 school attending and 250 non school attending) adolescent girls recruited from nine districts of Tigray. The primary quantitative data were analyzed using SPSS version 20 software. The qualitative data collected through key informant interviews and focus group discussions were transcribed verbatim and qualitatively analyzed. Results: The mean (SD) age of the girls was 16.7 (1.4) years. Four hundred forty seven (54%), 355 (42.9%) and 26 (3.1%) of the adolescent girls had low, medium and high diet diversity scores, respectively. More than half, 467 (56%), of the adolescent girls believed that adolescent girls were overloaded with household jobs everyday compared to boys from their respective communities. Key informants said that, there is no adolescent nutrition message promoted in the study area. Low community awareness, perceiving iron tablet as a contraceptive, religious and cultural influences, and lack of confidence in supplementation value of iron tablets, are some of the potential barriers mentioned by the key informant and focus group discussion participants. Schools (45%), health centers (27%) and health posts (26%) were the preferred public facilities for provision of iron supplements to student adolescent girls whereas schools (11%), health centers (47%) and health posts (41%) were the preferred public facilities for provision of iron supplements to adolescent girls who were not attending schools from the study communities. Conclusion: The health posts and health centers were the preferred health facilities for iron supplementation to adolescent girls who were not attending schools while the school was the preferred facility for iron supplementation of student adolescent girls.