Impact of a Nutrition Education Program on Breastfeeding Mothers' Dietary Diversity and Infant Diarrhoea Incidence in Southwestern Nigeria

Lack of dietary variety among breastfeeding women in Nigeria is linked with inefficient maternal health and morbidity among babies. This paper will assess the efficiency of a community-based nutrition education intervention on maternal dietary diversity and infant diarrhoea rates. The study was a quasi-experimental trial in which 200 lactating mothers (0-6 months postpartum) from four Primary Health Care centres in Nigeria (Lagos and Oyo States) participated between January 2024 and December 2024. The intervention group (n=100) received an 8-week structured dietary education program focused on locally available nutrient-rich foods. The control group (n=100) received regular postpartum care. The main variables of interest were maternal food diversity, evaluated using the Minimum Dietary Diversity for Women index, and infant diarrhoea cases, determined via 3-month recall. Paired t-tests and multivariate logistic regression were used to analyse the data.After the intervention, the intervention group showed significant improvement in average dietary diversity score 4.2+-1.1 to 6.5+-0.8 (p<0.001) relative to the controls (4.1+-1.0 to 4.3+-1.1, p=0.09). Sufficient dietary diversity (5 groups of foods) rose to 82% of the intervention group as compared to 36% and 41% of controls (p<0.001). In the intervention group, infant diarrhoea rate decreased by 24% to 14% (p=0.02), compared with 22% to 20% in the controls (p=0.45). Infants in the intervention group were 48% less likely to have diarrhoea (adjusted OR: 0.52, 95% CI: 0.28-0.96, p=0.04) after adjustment for confounders.Nutrition education using a structured method significantly enhanced mothers' dietary diversity in southwest Nigeria and reduced the incidence of infant diarrhoea, and can be implemented in routine postpartum care.