WORLD JOURNAL OF ADVANCE
HEALTHCARE RESEARCH

Abo K. J. Mouroufie*, Egnon K. V. Kouakou, Siaky M. Kamara, Carène M. S. Konan, Kouamé G. M. Bouafou, Amenan Clementine Kouakou, Séraphin Kati-Coulibaly

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this work is to determine the influence of the early introduction of food to instead of in infants in Anono a sub-district of Abidjan Cocody. To do so, a cross-sectional and descriptive study was carried out in Cocody (Anono), a sub-district of Abidjan Côte d'Ivoire. It was conducted from early March to the end of July 2018. During this case study 960 children underwent a nutritional assessment. The data were collected using a sample questionnaire form for nutritional assessment including a SECA brand baby weigh scale, and a mother-child health record. The results of this study show that food is introduced early in the diet of all infants aged 0 to 6 months. Of these children, more than 61% received foods at an early age of 4-5 months. The introduced foods are Anagobaka at 41.27%, 24.16% for industrial flours, 20% for local flours and 9.57% for water and 5% for fruit juices. It is the housewives and traders with 36.25% and 26.04% respectively were those who mostly introduced food early. The reasons given for this tendency are the unavailability of the mother (68.02%), the insufficiency of breast milk (22.36%), the problem of constipation (6.57%) and finally the problem of lactation (3, 05%). Early introduction of food to the baby, before the age of (6) six months, could cause a disturbance of the gut microbiota which leads creates a factor favoring malnutrition. In addition, rising of awareness should be conducted on the appropriate period to introduce food and what type of such food for infants in Côte d'Ivoire.

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