Early weaning is considered as one of the major health issue and it is recognized
as the one of the leading cause of mortality and morbidity of infants in many developing
countries. A comparative study was done to identify the factors leading to early weaning
among mothers of infants in selected areas at Mangalore. Non probability sampling
technique and purposive sampling method was used to select 70 early weaned mothers
from 300 screened mothers residing at urban area and 50 early weaned mothers from
300 screened mothers of children less than 1 year of age from rural areas at Mangalore.
The findings of the study show that there is a significant difference in the number
of early weaned mothers of infant when comparing to the urban and rural areas. Hence
it is concluded that the early weaning is more common in urban area than in the rural
area.
Keywords
Early weaning - mothers - infants - breast feeding - complementary feeding
