Assessment of Nutritional Status of Children (3-5 Years) and Seek its Association with their Mother's Knowledge on Nutritional Requirements of Children

Nutritional status during early years of life can have profound effect on child�s health status, ability to learn, and their cognitive behavior. And the mothers are the primary care providers of their children. The study was conducted by the researcher in order to assess the nutritional status of children (3-5 years) and seek its association with their mother�s knowledge on nutritional requirements of children and to assess its association with their selected demographic variables. The sample consisted of 60 children and their mothers, by using purposive sampling technique, and random sampling technique (lottery method) for selecting those children whose mothers having more than one child with the same age group 3-5 years. Structured knowledge questionnaire was used to assess the level of knowledge of mothers and nutritional status of children were assessed by anthropometric measurements and categorized based on WHO z-score system. The results revealed that in nutritional status for weight for age 10 (17 %) children were undernourished, height for age 25 (42 %) and 8 (13 %) children were moderate and severe stunting, weight for height 16 (27 %) had moderately wasting, MUAC 21 (35 %) and 22 (37 %) were moderate and severe undernourished respectably. There was significant association between the level of knowledge of mothers and nutritional status of children only for height for age at 0.05 level of significance. Age, religion and family income, had significant association with level of knowledge of mothers at 0.05 level of significance but there was no association with respect to other variables. There was significant association between the nutritional status of children and demographic variable i. e. exclusive breast feeding for weight for age at 0.05 level of significance. Research findings revealed that majority of mothers had average knowledge regarding child�s nutritional requirements and nutritional status of children varies as normal, undernutrition, stunting and wasting. Key words � Mother�s, children, knowledge, nutritional status, urban slum area.