Determinants of Complementary Foods Choice for Children in South West Benin

The choice of complementary foods, especially for children aged 0-23 months, remains an issue in most parts of the world, particularly in developing countries. We examine in this paper, the factors determining the choice of complementary foods for children aged 0-23 months in south west Benin. The data used come from the Nut Aumed survey conducted by the Applied Anthropology Research Group (AARG), in December 2020. The study employed an unordered multinomial logit regression model and bivariate analyses. Results show that complementary foods are introduced early to children, the choice of complementary foods is dependent on average family income, mother’s occupation, food taboos, number of economically active persons in the household, residence environment, family food consumption score, survival strategy adopted by the family and reduced coping strategy index. These results are confirmed by the econometric model. We recommend a policy of sensitization of families on food restriction, an improvement in the level of family income, an improvement in the level of women’s education, and nutritional education for women nurses

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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The datasets used in this study are openly available at [repository link] and the source code is available on GitHub at [GitHub link].

This work did not receive any external funding.