title: Ethiopian adolescents' attitudes and expectations deviate from current infant and young child feeding recommendations.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Suboptimal infant and child feeding practices are highly prevalent in many developing countries for reasons that are not entirely understood. Taking an anthropological perspective, we assessed whether nulliparous youth have formulated attitudes and expectations in the domain of infant and child feeding behaviors, the extent to which these varied by location and gender, and the extent to which they deviated from current international recommendations.
  
  
  METHODS
  A population-based sample of 2077 adolescent girls and boys (13-17 years) in southwest Ethiopia answered a questionnaire on infant and young child feeding behaviors.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Results indicate high levels of agreement among adolescents on items relating to infant and young child feeding behaviors. Attitudes and intentions deviated widely from current international recommendations. Youth overwhelmingly endorsed items related to early introduction of nonbreast milk liquids and foods. For girls, fewer than 11% agreed that a 5-month infant should be exclusively breastfed and only 26% agreed that a 6-month infant should be consuming some animal source foods. Few sex differences emerged and youth responses matched larger community patterns.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results indicate that attitudes and expectations deviate widely from current international child feeding guidelines among soon to be parents. To the extent that youth models are directive, these findings suggest that youth enter into parenthood with suboptimal information about infant and child feeding. Such information will reproduce poor health across generations as the largest cohort of adolescents ever become parents. These results suggest specific points of entry for adolescent nutrition education interventions.
authors: Department of Anthropology, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia 30322, USA. chadley@emory.edu
authors: Craig
authors: C
authors: Hadley
authors: David
authors: D
authors: Lindstrom
authors: Tefera
authors: T
authors: Belachew
authors: Fasil
authors: F
authors: Tessema
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001290:Attitude / Q000208:ethnology*; D001942:Breast Feeding / Q000208:ethnology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003469:Culture; D005002:Ethiopia; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007225:Infant Food; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D009751:Nutritional Requirements; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires