Risk factors which contribute to malnutrition in children in Babylon hospital for maternity and children

Abstract EN

The aim : To find out the main problems affecting the nutrition of children.

Methods : An observational study was done on 134 children 6 months-2 years of age who admitted to nutrition rehabilitation center of Babylon teaching hospital for maternity and children from 1 \ 6 \ 2007-1 \ 6 \ 2008.

The growth of these children is-2SD and below.

Results : We found there is no significant differences between the number of children who where on breast feeding 63 (47 %) and the number of children who where on bottle feeding 71 (53 %).

We also found the largest group of malnourished children are those who are started complementary food too later (from 10 months-1 year of age) 90 (67.3 %), followed by 30 (22.3 %), 12 (9 %) and 2 (1.4 %) for those who started complementary food at age > 12 m, 7 m-9 m and 4 m-6 m respectively.

About maternal education we found the largest group of malnourished children is those who's their mothers finished primary school (56 %).

We found the number of malnourished children below 1 year of age 84 (62.75 %) is more than those above 1 year of age 50 (37.3 %).

The number of malnourished children from crowded family (with 4-6 sibling) are 69 (51.5 %) more than less crowded families.

There are no significant differences between number of malnourished children from urban 69 (51.5 %) and those from rural area 65 (48.5 %).

We found those children on breast feeding (65 %) responding to treatment with F 100 milk significantly more than those on artificial feeding (35 %).

Conclusions : These findings revealed that the important risk factor for developing malnutrition is delayed complementary feeding with the superiority of breast feeding on artificial feeding in decreasing the risk for malnutrition and in the acceptance of complementary food beyond 6 months of age.