Background:- Poor feeding practices, coupled with high rates of infectious diseases, are the proximate causes of malnutrition during the first two years of life, there are approximately 10 million annual deaths of under-five year children, of which over one third of such mortality is caused by malnutrition related to inadequate complementary feeding However, too early or too late introduction of complementary foods is not appropriate feeding practice as it carries many risks, which contributes to persistent child malnutrition, mortality and other complications. Nonetheless there is limited evidence with this regard low income countries including Ethiopia. Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine prevalence of complementary feeding practice and associated factors among mothers of children aged 6-23 months in Agro-pastoral communities in Gode rural district. Methods: A community based cross sectional study design was used with multi-stage random sampling method was used to select a sample of 634 mothers of eligible children. Data were collected using structured pretested questionnaire. Odds ratio along with 95% CI was estimated to identify factors associated complementary feeding practice among children aged 6 -- 23 months. The level of statistical significant was set at P-value less or equal to 0.05. Results: Prevalence of complementary feeding practice was 15%., 95% CI(12.2,18.0). In multivariable logistic regression Analysis Maternal education [AOR=,3.079, 95% CI( (1.79,5.29)] and income [AOR=3.183, 95% CI (1.51,6.73) ] were independently associated with complementary feeding practice. Conclusion: Complementary feeding practice among agro-pastoral communities in Gode rural district was very low education were directly related to the ideal of complementary feeding practices so, effort should be put to increase female education, and also training on the issue related to farm product marketing to facilitate their income generation in order to increase socio-economical status. Furthermore community nutritional education on the issues related infant and young child feeding practices.
