Maternal occupation and child nutritional care among working-class mothers of children aged 6-24 months in Ibadan Metropolis

Background: Mothers' involvement in income-generating activities can limit their time on child-care practices, which may negatively affect their children's nutritional status. This study was designed to investigate the perceived effect of maternal occupation on the nutritional care of children aged 6-24 months. Methods: This cross-sectional survey involved 392 consenting working-class mothers with children aged 6-24 months purposively selected from vaccination centres in all four Oyo State-owned secondary and tertiary health facilities within the Ibadan metropolis. Child nutritional care (CNC) was measured using five domains of care: child-feeding knowledge (CFK), child-feeding practice (CFP), child-mother interaction (CMI), hygiene practices (HP), and health-seeking behaviour (HSB). Each scale was graded as <50%= poor and ≥ 50%= good. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, the Chi-square test, and logistic regression at p<0.05. Results: Most (81.0%) of the mothers worked long hours daily. Trend of poor CNC was 31.1% (CFK), 23.7% (CFP), 17.9% (CMI), 25.8% (HP), and 13.0% (HSB). Traders had poorer scores but no statistical significance for the selected domains CFK (53.0%), CFP (37.0%), CMI (45.0%), HP (61.4%) and HSB (100%). Mothers who worked six hours at most daily were more likely to have good HP (OR=1.31, 95% C.I: 0.68-2.50) and good CFK (OR=1.87, 95% C.I: 1.02-3.43) compared with mothers who worked more hours daily. Conclusion: Traders provided poor child nutrition, and mothers who worked fewer hours daily had better hygiene practices and good child-feeding knowledge. Workplace childcare health education materials can potentially improve working mothers’ childcare practices.