CULTURAL DYNAMICS OF INFANT FEEDING: A STUDY OF FULANI AND CHAMBA COMMUNITIES IN NIGERIA

This study was carried out in Ganye local government area of Adamawa State to analyses breast feeding and weaning pattern of infants amongst the Chamba and Fulani tribes. Four hundred indigenous nursing mothers that had infants belonging to these two major tribes (Chamba and Fulani) were studied in different maternity centers. Purposive random sampling technique was employed to select five maternity clinics and general hospital where women go for ante-natal in the study area. Similarly, stratified random sampling was used to select 200 breastfeeding and 200 weaning mothers from the selected institutions. Data were collected from the respondents by the use of a structured questionnaire and personal interview. Frequency and percentages were used to analyses the data. The study revealed among others that there were no nutritionist, dieticians and pediatrics in most of the clinics to offer specialized pieces of advice to mothers. Hence, it was recommended that government should endeavour to employ more specialists who will help in discharging specialized services to breastfeeding and weaning mothers