Published Article

The study investigated bottle food and solid food practices in child rearing among women in Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District. The population of this study comprised all women in Ikot Ekpene Senatorial district of Akwa Ibom State. The study adopted Expost-Facto research design while simple random sampling technique was used in selecting the respondents. The instrument for data collection which was tagged “Bottle Food and Solid Food Practices in Child Rearing Questionnaire (BFSFPCR)” was administered to the respondents and used for the study. The instrument was vetted by expert in home economy and test and measurement before the reliability test was conducted with 30 women which produced the reliability coefficient of 0.86 proving the instrument to be reliable for the study. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Pearson Product Moment Correlation Analysis. From the results of the data analysis, it was observed that there is significant relationship between knowledge of these feeding practices (bottle feeding and solid food feeding) and child rearing. The conclusion was that child rearing is dependent on knowledge of feeding practices among women in Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District. It was therefore recommended that women should feed their babies mostly with milk to be sure of hygiene. It was also recommended that bottle food should strongly be discouraged from babies unless it is recommended by a medical doctor or a nutritionist.