Assessing the feeding practices of malnourished children (1-5years): A descriptive study.

Introduction: Under five children are prone to many preventable life-threatening diseases. These diseases contribute to high mortality of under five children among which malnutrition is the major cause. Objective: 1)To identify 1-5 years children with malnutrition. 2) To asess the feeding practices of malnourished children, Dhanas, UT Chandigarh. Methodology: Descriptive design was used to conduct the study. Ethical approval was obtained from Institute Ethics Committee, PGIMER, Chandigarh and written informed consent was obtained from mothers. Total 152 children were enrolled by using purposive sampling technique. A list of malnourished children was taken from Anganwadi centers and they were enrolled in the study. Data was collected in August-November 2017. Assessment of feeding practices was done by using interview schedule and nutritional status was assessed by using weight for age chart. Mothers were interviewed in their home setting as per interview schedule. Results: Feeding practices revealed that all the children were not eating their meals in a separate plate, most of the children were consuming junk foods, most of the mothers were either giving junk food before meals or in place of food and only half of the children were started complementary feeding at 6 months, Half of them either started complementary feeding early or late. Conclusion: Children having malnutrition were consuming more junk food. Breast feeding and complementary feeding practices were not appropriate. Hence it is recommended that nurses and other community health workers should use the strategies to combat malnutrition which are applicable at local levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]