Impact of feeding practices on nutritional status of preschool children of Lucknow district: A community based cross-sectional study

Background: A child's entire life is determined in large measures by the food given to him during his first five years. Their nutritional status is a sensitive indicator of community health and nutrition. Undernutrition among them is one of the greatest public health problems in India. Materials and method: This community based cross-sectional study was carried out in urban and rural areas of Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. Multistage random sampling technique was used to select 420 children of 1-5 years age group from urban and rural areas. Door to door survey was done to collect data and it was analysed using software M S Office excel and SPSS 17. Results: It was found that total 71.7% children were breastfed, 67.6% were breastfed in an hour, colostrum was given to only 61.9% children while only 52.4% ere exclusively breastfed. Children who were bottle-fed, started feeding after one hour of birth, not given colostrum and with non-exclusive breastfeeding were found significantly underweight and wasted. Conclusion: Significant association was observed between type of family, overcrowding and socio-economic status with nutritional status of children. Statistically significant association was found between feeding practices and nutritional status of children. Children who were breastfed, initiated early feeding, given colostrum and breastfed for 2 years have better nutritional status than other groups.