Abstract:
Introduction:Mothers’valueoncomplementaryfoodchoiceiswhatmothersconsiderwhile giving/choosingfoodfortheirchildrenanditaffectsinfantandyoungchildfeedingpractice.Itis valuemothersgivewhilefeedingcomplementary feedingfortheirchildren,thevaluestheygive forcomplementaryfeedingcanbehealth,mentaldevelopment,costofthefood,weightand nutritionalcontent.Complementaryfeedingisacrucialperiodinachildlife.Aswellas complementaryfeedingiscrucialthepractice(infantandyoungchildfeedingpractice)isalso veryvaluable Objectives:Toassessmothers’valueoncomplementaryfoodchoicefortheirchildrenand associatedfactorsamongwomenofchildrenaged6-23monthsinGondartown,Northwest Ethiopia. Method:AmixedstudywasconductedinGondartown,Northwest,EthiopiafromJunetoJuly 2022.Atotal845motherswhohadchildrenbetweentheagesof6-23monthswererecruitedfor thestudywithaMultistagesamplingtechnique.Purposivesamplingapproachwasappliedto selectmothersforqualitativestudy. Semi-structuredandpretestedquestionnairewasusedto collectthedataonmothers’valueonchoosingtheirchildrenfoodandthedatawereenteredinto EPIinfoversion7andtransferredtoStata14.0fortheanalysis.Binarylogisticregressionmodel wasusedtoassessstatisticalassociationbetweenthedependentandindependentvariables. VariableswithP-valueof≤0.20inbi-variablelogisticregressionwereincludedtoamutivariablelogisticregressionandvariableswithap-valueof<0.05inmultivariatelogistic regressionweretakenasindependentsignificantfactorsfortheoutcomevariablewith95%CI andAORshowingstrengthoftheassociation. Results: The proportion of good level of mothers’ value on complementary foods choice for their child was 51.8% (95%CI: 48.2-55.6). Mothers having secondary education(AOR=2.60, 95% CI: 1.57-4.29), mothers having college and above education(AOR=5.52, 95% CI: 3.129.77), fathers having primary school education (AOR = 3.36;95%CI: 1.52-7.46), mothers having more than one under 5 children (AOR=2.06, 95% CI: 1.37- 3.11) and mothers who gave birth with an interval of 12-24 months (AOR=1.77, 95% CI: 1.18- 2.65) mothers who had an information about the importance iron rich food(AOR = 2.50, 95% CI: 1.61-3.89).In the qualitative part of the study was found that mothers who have higher education have a better knowledge than those mothers who don’t. It also showed that the value that mothers consider
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while choosing food the most was health. The qualitative data was audio recorded and it was transcribed verbatim then translated to English. The open code software was used for the analysis. Conclusion:Mothers’educationalstatus,fathers’educationalstatus,birthinterval,numberof underfivechildrenandinformationaboutimportanceofironrichfoodweresignificantly associatedwithmother’svalueoncomplementaryfoodchoicefortheirchildren
