• Dr. M. Padmaja

India is a nation with more than 375 million children and about 36 percent of the population is living below the poverty line, with women and children accounting for 73 percent. Child rearing refers to bringing-up of children by parents or parent substitutes. It is probably the most challenging responsibility for a mother during her child's infancy. Successful child rearing is essential for the child's overall development and realization of self-esteem. Socio-economic conditions as well as cultural beliefs play a large part in the child rearing practices in India. A cross-sectional study was conducted with a view of assessing the nutritional status and the level of knowledge about child rearing practices followed in rural areas of West Godavari District. It was found that women and children were suffering from one or more forms of malnutrition including low birth weight, wasting, stunting, underweight, Vitamin-A deficiencies, iodine deficiency disorders and anaemia. It was observed that only 13.5% of the mothers initiated early breast feeding and exclusive breastfeeding under six months was given by 37.5%. Initiation of breastfeeding is generally quite late and colostrums are discarded. Only 35% of the children have received complete immunization as per the National Immunization Schedule. The reasons expressed by the mothers for non-immunization of the children were going to a native village (46.8%), problems in the family (19.6%), immunization centre was located too far from their home (14.7%) and the child was not well when the vaccination was due (5%). About 18.9 per cent of mothers could not give any reason for not immunizing the child. Mother is an important primary care provider and, therefore, she should able to take care of her baby and to develop a positive attitude towards infant rearing practices. The child rearing practice is an important task for the parents to help the infants to become emotionally and socially healthy. The major responsibility of parents is to provide good care for their children so that they can develop into responsible adults. The study states that inadequate infant rearing practices are prevailing in our society so an important role can be played by health care delivery system to help the mothers to up bring their children as a normal person by adopting good child rearing practices.

Child rearing practices, deficiency, breast feeding, immunization

"KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDE ON CHILD REARING PRACTICES AMONG RURAL WOMEN IN WEST GODAVARI DISTRICT OF ANDHRA PRADESH ", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 5, page no.63-65, May-2019, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIRBN06018.pdf

"KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDE ON CHILD REARING PRACTICES AMONG RURAL WOMEN IN WEST GODAVARI DISTRICT OF ANDHRA PRADESH ", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 5, page no. pp63-65, May-2019, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIRBN06018.pdf