ABSTRACT

This study was carried out to assess the influence of parental knowledge, attitude and feeding

practices on anthropometric status of preschool children (2-5 years) in Umuahia North. Data

collection was conducted with a structured and validated questionnaire. Information was

collected on the parental knowledge, attitude and feeding practice toward the anthropometries

status of their children. Data collected was coded and analyzed using Statistical Packages for

Social Science (SPSS) version 20. From the findings, it was observed that 41.7% of fathers

and 32.1% of mothers had poor nutritional knowledge while 27.8% of fathers and 40.1% of

mothers had excellent nutritional knowledge. In case of parental attitude towards child feeding,

77.8% of fathers and 72.4% of mothers had positive attitude while 22.2% of fathers and

27.6% of mothers had undecided attitude. The mean score (17.7±9.8) of fathers and (33.8±7.8)

of mothers had good frequency involvement in child feeding while (10.9±5.5) of fathers and

(12.7±4.0) of mothers had poor frequency involvement in child feeding. The mean score

(4.4±0.5) of fathers and (4.4±0.5) of mothers had good practices while (3.1±0.9) of fathers and

(3.5±0.8) of mothers had poor child feeding practices. The children nutritional status using

weight-for-height status 14.5% of the males and 20% of the females were severely wasted,

height-for-age status 3.1% of the males and 1.9% of the females were stunted, weight-for-age

status 2.6% of the males and 1.2% of the females between 48-60 months were underweight,

BMI status 1.5% of the males and 0.9% of the females were obese, BMI-for-age status 18.5%

of the males and 29.6% of the females were severely wasted, and MUAC-for-age status

15.4% of the males and 13.9% of the females were malnourished. This study has revealed that

there was no significant relationship (p>0.05) between the parental knowledge score and the

anthropometries status of the preschool children. Based on the findings of this study,

government should establish the need for eloping nutrition education materials to help promote

procedures for assessment of anthropometric status of the Under-5 children.