Assessment of nutritional status and its association with feeding practices in children under five years

Abstract

Health education of caregivers on feeding and care practices and on the optimal use of locally available foods, is among the nutritional interventions through which marked reductions in child under nutrition can be achieved. 1,5 Assessment of feeding practices of infants ABSTRACT Background: The level of child and maternal under nutrition remains unacceptable throughout the world. In India 48% of children are stunted, 20 per cent of children under five years of age suffer from wasting due to acute under nutrition. Methods: The present study was a cross-sectional study conducted on 211 children from 6 months-6 years of age. Data collection included socio-demographic characteristics, anthropometric measurements and assessment of infant and young child feeding practices. Results: A total of 211 (128 females and 83 males) children were included in the study. The prevalence of underweight, stunting and wasting was observed to be 84 (39.81%), 99 (46.92%) and 47 (22.27%) respectively. Proportions of stunting and underweight was significantly more among children whose mothers reported inappropriate feeding practices as compared to their study counterparts. Conclusions: Under nutrition of sizeable magnitude is prevalent in children less than six years; as revealed by results of the present study. Past and current Infant and young child feeding practices were found to be significantly associated with under nutrition.

A study on comparison of feeding practices among rural and urban children and its effect on their nutritional status in western UP

“…12 Further it was seen that underwt & stunting both had a significant association with it in both the areas. Corroborative findings were noted by Gandhi et al, 16 Syed S et al 15 & Islam et al 14 Delay in initiation of breastfeeding as per the mothers were mainly due to cultural reasons where as per culture baby's maternal aunt or bua is suppose to give him honey as prelacteal feeds after which the mother is allowed to feed him/her. delay in shifting the mothers from labour room, babies were in neonatal ICU, Caesarean section and family restriction…”

Association of Practices Regarding Infant and Young Child Feeding with Anthropometry Measurements Among an Urban Population in Karnataka, India

“…An attempt at formulating an association between the type of complementary food consumed and each anthropometric measurement was made and a positive impact on the weight and height parameters were observed, particularly with some food items, such as meat, eggs, seafood, thin porridge, with certain results showing statistical significance (Tables 5-6). Most studies have analyzed the consumption of various complementary food items independent of the anthropometric measurements of their study population and thus have not been able to show a direct association between the two [24,26,28-29]. In our study, we have compared the proportion of food consumption with height and weight as a 1:1 comparison, unlike previous studies.…”