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

Abstract

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.