NUTRITIONAL STATUS OF CHILDREN WITH CONGENITAL HEART DISEASE

Congenital heart disease (CHD) is a defect in the heart or major blood vessels that are present in children at birth & CHD it occurs in approximately 1% of live births in developed countries. Infants and children with CHD exhibit a range of delays in weight gain and growth. Objective: To find out the relationship between the children with CHD nutritional status and their socio-demographic characteristics. Methodology: Non-probability (purposive) sample of (65) were selected of 225 children who visit the heart center during the period of conducting the pilot study, previously diagnosed with congenital heart disease. Results: The children with congenital heart disease have (32.3%) suffered from underweight by weight for age, a highly significant relationship between weight for age index and gender. (64.6%) of study sample suffered from wasting with weight for height, a significant high association between the premature baby " is wasting" and children with CHD. (78.5%) Suffered from stunting with height for age. Almost half of the study sample suffered from malnourished (49.2%) by measuring BMI for age, the highly significant association for the children with congenital heart disease and family's residency. Recommendation: The study recommended an establishment of feeding unit, located at heart disease hospitals and health centers, to teach the families the methods of feeding through teaching program for raising their awareness about child's feeding problems.