Assessment of Malnutrition and Nutritional Status of Hospitalized and Treated Children Aged between 12 and 60 Months

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate malnutrition, breastfeeding, introduction to complementary feeding, and nutritional status of hospitalized children aged between 1 and 5 years. Methods: Along with their mothers, a total of 484 children aged between 1 and 5 years without underlying chronic diseases were included in this study. The mothers were questioned about breastfeeding, introduction to complementary feeding, and nutritional status of their children. Anthropometric measurements including body weight and height of the children were evaluated using the WHO Anthro Program. The interpretation of measurements was done by using the z-score [ standard deviation (SD)] cut-points. Results: The mean age of the patients was 2.27 years. The rate of mothers who breastfed for less than 6 m was 19.6%; among breastfed children aged between 12 and 24 m, the rate was 42.4%. The mean age to start complementary feeding was 6.8 +/- 3.01 m. The first complementary food given was yogurt in 45.6% of the babies and vegetable soup in 29.4%. The rates of acute malnutrition, chronic malnutrition, and obesity were 13.6%, 5.2%, and 7.2%, respectively. Conclusion: Malnutrition is a major health problem. It is multifactorial and includes timing of introduction of complementary feeding, preparation techniques of food, and socioeconomic and cultural factors. To eliminate the adverse effects of nutrition on health problems, the nutritional status of individuals should be closely monitored, and necessary precautions should be taken.