International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health | November 2016 | Vol 3 | Issue 11 Page 3081 International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health Sarkar TK et al. Int J Community Med Public Health. 2016 Nov;3(11):3081-3085 http://www.ijcmph.com pISSN 2394-6032 | eISSN 2394-6040 Original Research Article Early initiation of breast feeding in tribal children Tapas K. Sarkar 1 *, Sharmistha Bhattacherjee 2 , Abhijit Mukherjee 2 , Tushar K. Saha 2 , Manasi Chakraborty 3 , Samir Dasgupta 2 INTRODUCTION Breastfeeding is an unequalled way of providing young infants with the nutrients they require for healthy growth and development; it is also a fundamental determinant of the maternal and child health with important implications for the health of mothers, economic stability of the family and thereby, society. 1 Provision of mother‟s breast milk to infants within one hour of birth is stated to be as “early initiation of breastfeeding” and warrants that the infant receives the colostrum, or “first milk”. 2 Colostrum is the yellowish, sticky milk produced during the initial days of birth, and as a global public health ABSTRACT Background: The World Health Organization recommends provision of mother‟s breast milk to infants within one hour of birth. Despite this, the national data suggest only 40.8% infants were put to breast within one hour of birth and these figures are considerably lower among the tribal population. The objectives were to find out the proportion and socio-demographic factors associated with early initiation of breast feeding among tribal children aged 0-23 months residing in tea gardens of Jalpaiguri district, West Bengal, India. Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was undertaken among 219 tribal children aged 0-23 months in two tea gardens of Jalpaiguri district, West Bengal. The mothers of the selected children were interviewed and information on gender of child, socio-economic and educational status of the mother; feeding history and feeding practices of children was collected. Binary logistic regression was performed for statistical analysis using SPSS version 20. Results: The proportion of breast feeding initiation within one hour of birth was 68.5%. The odds of early initiation of breastfeeding was found to be higher among male infants those belonging to Hindu families and upper socio- economic status, whose mothers were more educated and among those who were delivered at any health institution than their counterparts. Conclusions: The results signify that early initiation of breastfeeding was suboptimal. Therefore, efforts should also be made to increase the awareness of infant and child feeding practices for improved health status of the children of the tribal population. Keywords: Breastfeeding, Early initiation, Tribal children 1 PhD Scholar, West Bengal University of Health Sciences, North Bengal Medical College, Sushrutanagar, Darjeeling, West Bengal, India 2 Department of Community Medicine, North Bengal Medical College, Sushrutanagar, Darjeeling, West Bengal, India 3 Department of Community Medicine MGM Medical College, Kishanganj, West Bengal, India Received: 28 August 2016 Accepted: 29 September 2016 *Correspondence: Dr. Tapas K. Sarkar, E-mail: sharmistha.bhattacherjee@gmail.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20163915