Enhancing Recovery of Malnourished Children: Mothers' Counseling and Participation Ensures Intervention Effectiveness.

The study employs mothers' counselling and participatory approach in ensuring quick recovery among malnourished children. Cohorts of sixty eligible mothers who have children diagnosed of malnutrition were considered for the study. The mothers and their children were grouped into test and control groups of thirty. The anthropometric measurements of the children were obtained before and after eight weeks of intervention. Mothers were involved in rehabilitating their own malnourished children by using local foods and knowledge. In addition to mothers counselling, growth monitoring was done for the malnourished children. The study showed a positive relationship between mothers counselling and the recovery rate of children suffering from acute malnutrition. During the eighth week of intensive counselling a change in the malnourished children in the test group became obvious: appetite returned, oedema disappeared, and the children began to run and play. These strategies of counselling mothers and a participatory approach can save cost of care, prevent malnutrition and improve the nutrition status of children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]