Mahfuza Afroz Shathi
Nutrition is a fundamental pillar of human life, health and development across the entire life span. From the earliest stages of fetal development, at birth, and through infancy, childhood, adolescence and on into adulthood, proper food and good nutrition are essential for survival, physical growth, mental development, performance, productivity, health and well-being. More than half of all child deaths are associated with malnutrition, which weakens the body's resistance to illness. Adequate nutrition is essential in early childhood to ensure healthy growth, proper organ formation and function, a strong immune system and neurological and cognitive development. Child malnutrition impacts cognitive function and contributes to poverty through impeding individuals’ ability to lead productive lives. In addition, it is estimated that more than one-third of under-five deaths are attributable to under nutrition. Thus, achieving optimal child health is dependent upon optimizing the health and well-being of a child’s mother. The purpose of this research is to identify the relationship among maternal socioeconomic status and nutritional knowledge and nutritional status of fewer than five children in selected area of Dhaka City. Structured questionnaire was used for this descriptive cross sectional study and sampling technique was random non-provable sampling. Collected 300 data was analyzed by SPSS and Microsoft Excel Software. This research found that according to Water low classification greater part of the children was stunted 54%. Only 17.7% of the children were found here to be normal. 16% of the children were both stunted and wasted, 12.3% children were wasted In this study there was significant association between maternal age and weight for age of the children p-value 0.04; mother’s education and knowledge about complementary feeding for the children p-value 0.018; feeding practices after six months and weight for age of the children. It also found positive correlation between birth weight and weight for age of the children; total family income and nutritional status of the participated children.
