WHY THIS PROJECT? ¥ The incidence of childhood malnutrition and common ailments like AGE and ARI are high in Pooluvapatty - AGE - 2832/ 10,000 popn -ARI - 377/ 10,000 popn “There are various strongly rooted misconceptions regarding infant feeding practices among the mothersLITERATURE REVIEW * A study conducted in rural ICDS block in Orissa (by Survapati & BC Das ) - 37.18% of the mothers were unaware of exclusive breast feeding * Study in Tonks district in rural Rajasthan ( Diksha an heel Sharma ) - 699 mothers of 0-3 yr old children - Believe top milk is essential - 60% started breast feeding on 3° day - Colostrum was to be discarded - 60% cont breast feeding for > 24months - Pre lacteals were given - No knowledge-appropriate weaning foodscontd + A study in rural Madhya Pradesh ( Sharma and Gupta ) concluded that - the prevalance of at risk children was inversely proportional to literacy of mothers - maternal education and KAP were significantly associated + An interventional study in a tribal community in West Bengal ( Banerjee and Mandal ) - 50.65% of the total infant population malnourished - Nutrition education to the mothers creased the weight gain by 80.8gm