Breastfeeding is one of the components of Primary Health Care in Ethiopia. In Ethiopia a wide range of harmful infant feeding practices has been documented despite the implementation of infant and young child feeding guidelines. However, there is no well documented study of women’s perception of breastfeeding patterns and factors associated with delayed initiation of breastfeeding (with timely initiation of breastfeeding being within the first hour) in rural communities of Arba Minch Zuria.

Addressing the nutritional problems of adolescent girls is important as their nutritional status has a negative effect on the future generation. This study aimed to assess the optimal dietary practices and nutritional knowledge of school adolescent girls in Jimma Zone, South-west Ethiopia. School-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 455 school adolescent girls. Multivariable logistic regression was used to identify independent variables. Majority (61.3%) of students had dietary diversity score less than five and their mean (±SD) dietary diversity score was 4.34 ± 1.41. The majority (55.8%) of adolescent girls had a good knowledge score about nutrition related information which they earned from the school (86.6%). Low dietary diversity of school adolescent girls was positively associated with attending government schools, lack of maternal education and low-economic status. Therefore, both government and non-government organizations need to focus on school and community based nutrition intervention to address the low dietary diversity of school girl adolescents.

Background: Maternal under-nutrition due to macro and micronutrient deficiencies is a challenging public health problem worldwide, disproportionately affecting women in low-income nations. Hence, this study aimed at assessing factors associated with dietary practice and nutritional status of pregnant women in Illu Aba Bor Zone, Southwest Ethiopia. Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 403 randomly selected pregnant women, from May to June, 2019. Socio-demographic and socio-economic data were collected using a structured interviewer-administered questionnaire. Dietary Diversity was obtained using a qualitative 24-hr dietary recall method and nutritional status was assessed using mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) measurements. Data were entered onto Epidata version 3.5.3 and exported to SPSS version 20 for analysis. Binary and multivariable logistic regression analyses were used to identify independent predictors of nutritional status and dietary practice. Odds ratio with 95% Confidence interval was estimated to identify the predictors of the outcome variables. Statistical significance was affirmed at a p-value ≤ 0.05. Results: The prevalence of under-nutrition among the pregnant women was 17.4% and the mean (±SD) dietary diversity score was 4.88 ± 1.27. Family-size (AOR=3, 95% CI: (1.18, 7.21)), wealth status (AOR=3.65 (1.02, 12.99)), household food security (AOR=2.59 (1.21, 5.63)) and birth interval (AOR=2.3 (1.10, 4.87)) were significantly associated with nutritional status of pregnant women. Educational status (AOR = 3.49, 95% (1.53, 7.99)), household food security (AOR = 1.61, 95% (1.02, 2.56)), nutrition knowledge (AOR = 1.74, 95% (1.08, 2.79)), and meal frequency (AOR = 2.88, 95% (1.65, 5.03)) were significantly associated with dietary practice of the respondents. Conclusion: Finding of the study revealed that the prevalence of under-nutrition and poor dietary practice was high which were significantly associated with educational and economic status. Hence, it is imperative to improve the nutritional status of pregnant women, strengthening sustainable income-generating activities and saving strategies.

Each year, more than millions of under-five children die due to under-nutrition, and many of these deaths are associated with inappropriate feeding practices. This study aimed to assess complementary feeding practices in Damot Weydie District, South Ethiopia. A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted among four-hundred and one mothers who had children aged 6–23 months in Damot Weydie District. A pretested structured questionnaire was used to collect data using a face-to-face interview. Data were entered into Epi-Data version 3.1 and analysis was done by using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20. Multivariable logistic regressions were conducted to determine independent factors associated with complementary feeding practices. More than half (50.6%) of children were given complementary foods at six months of age. Only 8.5% of young children aged 6–23 months were fed with appropriate complementary foods. The proportion of mothers who reported that they know that a baby of 6–23 months old should be fed two or three times was only 75.8%. Government-employed mothers (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 0.14(0.04, 0.50) and mothers who attended postnatal care (AOR = 0.19(0.05, 0.70) were less likely to practice inappropriate complementary feeding. Mothers having children with birth intervals less than 35 months were more likely to practice inappropriate complementary feeding when compared to mothers of children with birth intervals greater than 35 months (AOR = 2.67 (1.22, 5.83). Considerable proportions of infants and young children were not appropriately fed with complementary foods as per WHO recommendations. Being a government employee mother, attending postnatal care and having a child with birth interval greater than 3 years were associated with appropriate complementary feeding. Therefore, it is important to encourage postnatal care utilization and incorporate complementary feeding advice during postnatal visits. It is critical to raise the awareness of the community about optimal complementary feeding practices with special attention to unemployed and less educated mothers. Additionally, inter-sectoral collaboration should be strengthened to increase the variety of food groups available.

Household food insecurity not only affects normal physical growth of young children, but also adversely affects their intellectual capacity and social skills. Studies showed that household food insecurity has a significant association with students’ poor school attendance. The aim of this review was to systematically identify, appraise and synthesise the best available evidence on the association between food insecurity and school absenteeism. All relevant papers for this review were searched using various databases and search engines with initial keywords/search terms: (“Absenteeism” OR “school attendance”) and (“food security” OR “food insecurity”) from the databases of PubMed, Hinari, Google Scholar and CINAHL using relevant keywords and search terms. All papers which were selected for review was subjected to a rigorous and independent appraisal analysis. All results were subjected to double data entry and heterogeneity was assessed using Chi-square test. Finding of this review showed that students from food secure households were 57% less likely to be absent from school (OR 0.43, 95% CI 0.36, 0.51) than students from food insecure households. The test for overall effect showed a high statistical significance at conventional levels (P < 0.00001) and there was no heterogeneity (χ 2 = 3.50, df = 3, [P = 0.32]) among the included studies for review. Generally, the results of this review indicated that household food insecurity has a strong linkage with students’ school absenteeism. Therefore, the impacts of household food insecurity should be taken into consideration in national nutrition policy formulation and there is also a need of strengthening programs like school feeding.