ASSOCIATION BETWEEN MOTHERS NUTRITIONAL KNOWLEDGE IN CHILDCARE PRACTICES AND NUTRITION STATUS OF 6-59 MONTHS BATAR COMMUNITY CHILDREN OF JHORAHAT VDC, MORANG

Abstract

The aim of the present work was to find out the mothers‟ nutritional knowledge in childcare practices and nutritional status of 6- 59 months children of Batar community in the rural area of Morang district of Nepal, a community based cross sectional descriptive study was conducted. The data were collected from mothers of 144 children. Census sampling technique was used for data collection. A structured questionnaire was administered to the mothers. Anthropometric measurements and basic associated factors were collected. SPSS version 20 and WHO Anthro 3.2.2 version were used for data analysis. Chi-square technique was used to assess factors associated to nutritional status of children. Prevalence of underweight, stunting and wasting were 27.8%, 23.6% and 19.4%, respectively. Majority of mothers (63.2%) had average knowledge score, 28.5% had poor knowledge score and only 8.3% of mothers had good knowledge score. There was no significant difference in the prevalence among male and female children. Calorie intake by the children was significantly (P < 0.05) associated with stunting, wasting and underweight. Similarly, study indicated that having kitchen garden at home was significantly (P < 0.05) associated with stunting. Current breastfeeding status, reason of malnutrition and foods during diarrhea were significantly (P < 0.05) associated with wasting. The use of iron-folate tablets during pregnancy by mothers and nutritional knowledge score was significantly (P < 0.05) associated with underweight