GAMBARAN PENGENALAN MAKANAN PENDAMPING ASI (MP-ASI) PADA ANAK USIA 6-8 BULAN DI PERDESAAN DAN PERKOTAAN INDONESIA

Abstract

One of the nutritional problems the government is focusing on is stunting caused by the untimely introduction of complementary foods for breast milk. This study aims to determine the introduction of complementary foods for breast milk in children aged 6-8 months in rural and urban areas of Indonesia. This cross-sectional study uses secondary data from the 2017 Indonesian demographic and health survey. The number of subjects was 590 children divided into two regions, namely rural areas, which amounted to 292 children, and rural areas, which amounted to 298 children. The variables of this study consisted of subject and parent characteristics consisting of socio-economics, parental education level, media exposure, geographic area, birth order, and introduction of complementary foods. The results of this study show that there are significant differences in the characteristics of subjects and parents in rural and urban areas except for birth order. The timely introduction of complementary foods for children aged 6-8 months in urban areas (81.5%) has a higher percentage than in rural areas (78.1%). Children aged 6-8 months in rural areas (64.1%) have a higher percentage of timely introduction of complementary foods at 6 months than children in urban areas (24.7%). In conclusion, the importance of household socio-economic factors and household demographics in the timely introduction of complementary breastfeeding foods. Therefore, it is still necessary to improve the socio-economic level of households and increase nutritional knowledge among mothers so that they can implement the practice of introducing complementary foods for breast milk that is classified as timely.