Title: Prevailing practices of prelacteal feeding in rural area of Marathawada region in Maharashtra state of India. Objective: To study prevailing practices of prelacteal feeding and impact of various sociodemographic factors on it. Method __ampersandsignndash; A community based cross sectional was conducted in rural area of Marathawada region in Maharashtra State of India. The study participants were 262 mothers having youngest child in the age group of 0 to 12 months. Questionnaire included sociodemographic structure of the family, the prelacteal practices followed in youngest child. Results: Out of total participant mothers, 107 (40.84%) mothers gave some kind of prelacteal feed to their baby while 155 (59.16%) did not give it. Literacy status, type of family, socioeconomic status, place of delivery found to have impact on prelacteal practices. Correlation with mode of delivery found to be non significant. Conclusion: Ignorance, blindly following generation old beliefs, influence of elderly persons at home, poverty were found to be various factors leading to prelacteal feeding and thereby emerging as barriers to appropriate infant feeding practices.