Nutritional Knowledge and Feeding Practice among Mothers of Under-Five Children Attending Primary Health Care Clinic in Ikorodu Local Government Area

Abstract

Nutrition is an important part of a child’s growth and development, especially the first two years of life considered to be the window of opportunity where we can improve the wellbeing of a child. This study, therefore, investigated mother’s nutritional knowledge and the nutritional status of their children in a selected health centre in Ikorodu, Lagos, Nigeria. The study employed a descriptive cross-sectional design. Multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 400 participants for the study. A 43-item validated semi-structured questionnaire with Cronbach’s alpha of 0.71; 0.72; 0.70 was used to collect data. Frequency, pie chart, Chi-square, and correlation analysis was conducted to give statistical responses to the research question and hypotheses using SPSS version 23. The mean age of the respondents was 30 ± 6.4 years. More than half (56.6%) of the respondents were married, 70% were Yoruba’s, and 61.3% were Christians. Respondents mean knowledge score was 5.9±1.96, while most (78.8%) of the respondents had good nutritional knowledge. Respondents mean child feeding practices score was 6.05±1.98, with more than half (59.2%) of the respondents having good child feeding practices. There was a significant relationship between respondent’s knowledge of nutrition and their child feeding practices (r=-0.13, p value= 0.007). In conclusion the mothers’ nutritional knowledge was good, the study further showed that there is a significant association between mothers’ nutritional knowledge and the nutritional status of the children. The study recommended that women should be educated by trained nutritionists on the types of locally available foods that promote growth in children during ante-natal clinics.