Determinants of early cessation of exclusive breastfeeding practices among rural mothers from Jaffna District of Sri Lanka.

"Declarations Ethics approval and consent to participateThe Ethics Review Committee (ERC) of Faculty of Medicine, University of Jaffna reviewed the research project, informed written consent form, and questionnaire and issued the ethical clearance to conduct the research (ERC / Dr. K. Kandeepan / 26 / 04 / 2010). The permission to invite the mothers and children from rural villages was obtained from the Director, Regional Directorial of Health Services of Jaffna and the Medical Officer of Health (MOH). All methods were carried out in accordance with the guidelines of the ERC of the Faculty of Medicine (https://www.med.jfn.ac.lk/ethics-review-committee/). Consent for publicationNot applicable. Competing interestsThe authors declare no competing interests. Competing interests The authors declare no competing interests."

"Funding Funding was obtained from National Research Council of Sri Lanka (The grant #NRC-13–21)."