Table 5 Observations of Nutrition Counselling Services Given by Health Workers to Caregivers
Abbreviated checklist items | Frequency (%) |
|---|---|
Nutrition Counselling Information Given | |
 Counselling of Caregivers with infants 0–5 months old (n = 143) | |
  Encourages exclusive breastfeeding | 136 (95.1) |
  Explains the importance of breastfeeding | 127 (88.8) |
  Teaches breastfeeding technique | 28 (19.6) |
  Advises feeding on demand | 72 (50.3) |
  Educates on expressing breast milk | 0 (0.0) |
  Counsels and encourages good hygiene practices (including before breastfeeding) | 84 (58.7) |
  Encourages caregiver to ask questions and answers them | 21 (14.7) |
 Enquiries made after weighing of children 6–23 months old (n = 385) | |
  Asked about feeding frequency | 107 (27.8) |
  Probed about portion size | 0 (0.0) |
  Enquired about consistency of food being fed to the child. | 0 (0.0) |
  Took feeding history | 73 (18.9) |
  Asked mothers about any iron rich foods being given to the child | 0 (0.0) |
  Asked mothers about any vitamin A rich foods being given to the child | 0 (0.0) |
  Sought information about the morbidity history of the child | 124 (32.2) |
 Nutritional Counselling of caregivers with children 6–23 months old (n = 385) | |
  Encourages and counsels on complementary feeding | 238 (61.8) |
  Encourages continued breastfeeding to 2 years and beyond in addition to complementary feeding | 147 (38.2) |
  HW generally encourages frequent feeding in a day | 202 (52.4) |
  Provided specific advice on feeding frequency appropriate for child’s age | 94 (24.4) |
  Provided advice on portion sizes to be fed to child | 0 (0) |
  Provided advice on food consistency | 0 (0) |
  Promoted diet diversity in their discussion with caregivers | 76 (19.7) |
  Advised caregivers about giving iron- rich foods to children | 163 (42.3) |
  Counsels and encourages hygiene practices especially when breastfeeding, cooking and feeding child | 186 (48.3) |
 Counselling on Feeding Child During Illness (n = 93) | |
  Need to give additional meals after illness | 23 (24.7) |
  Need to give small frequent feeds during illness | 19 (20.4) |
  Give foods that the child likes | 63 (67.7) |
  Continue to breastfeed | 42 (45.2) |
  Give soft and easily digestible foods | 31 (33.3) |
 HW indicates number of times of feeding meals (n = 385) | |
  1–2 times for breastfed infants 6–8 months (n = 126) | 23 (18.3) |
  3–4 times for breastfed children 9–23 months (n = 245) | 71 (28.9) |
  4 times for non-breastfed children 6–23 months (n = 14) | 0 (0.0) |
  For non-breastfed children, HW advises mother to give at least 2 milk feedings in a day in addition to complementary foods (n = 14) | 0 (0.0) |
  HW counsels caregiver to generally feed a variety of foods (n = 385) | 197 (51.2) |
  HW counsels caregiver to specifically feed (n = 385) | |
  Cereals (foods prepared from rice, millet, maize etc) | 238 (61.8) |
  Roots and tubers (foods prepared from yam, cassava, plantain etc) | 194 (50.3) |
  Legumes and nuts (beans, cowpea, groundnut etc) | 173 (44.9) |
  Flesh foods (meat, poultry, fish and liver/organ meats) | 136 (35.3) |
  Eggs | 98 (25.4) |
  Dairy foods | 76 (19.7) |
  Vitamin-A rich fruits and vegetables (dark green vegetables, pawpaw, water melon, mangoes, palm nut) | 183 (47.5) |
  Other fruits and vegetables (mentions examples of locally grown or available fruits and vegetables) | 83 (21.6) |
  Encourages mother to ask questions and answers them | 47 (12.2) |