Definition
MAFEDWATER24H (V409) indicates whether the child's mother gave her youngest surviving child plain water during the previous day, either at night or during the daytime. This variable describes a characteristic of the mother rather than the child.
Although the question wording asks about foods given to a specific child during the previous day, responses relate to the mother, so all young children of the mother are coded the same way. If the mother reported she gave her youngest surviving child plain water in the previous day, all of her children in the data are coded as "yes," including any children who have died or who live elsewhere.
A positive response in MAFEDWATER24H thus does not necessarily indicate whether a particular child of the mother drank plain water during the previous day. IPUMS-DHS users should instead employ the variable FEDWATER24H (M37A) to determine whether the child drank plain water during the previous day. See Comparability.
The related variable MAFEDWATER24HX (V469A) reports the number of times the child's mother gave her youngest surviving child plain water during the previous 24 hours. MAFEDWATERWKD (V470A) reports the number of days the child's mother gave her youngest surviving child plain water during the past week.
