Early Childhood Stunting, Household Food Security, Micronutrient Rich Foods Consumption Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

Objectives: This study aims to assess micronutrient rich food consumption, household food security status and its association with stunting. Methods: Community based cross-sectional design was employed to obtain data from 584 participants from three rural communitie. A two stage stratified sampling procedure was employed. Results: Only 14.4% of the mother fed their children optimally. The prevalence of stunting was higher for the Infant aged 6 to 8 months (43.04%) compared to other. Only 21.2% of household were food secure. Eighty six percent of the children had diets below the minimum dietary diversity group The prevalence of Vitamin A and iron rich food consumptions were very low. The majority (93.1%) of mothers in this study reported that children consumed complementary foods made from grains, roots, and tubers. Consumption of fruits and vegetables was also minimal (37.9%). Moreover, only 6.3% of children consumed vitamin-A rich fruits and vegetables. In this study, only 1.9 % of the children consumed meat, fish, poultry. Children who had never consumed Vitamin A rich sweet potato were 16 times more likely to be stunted than those who consumed (P<0.05). Conclusions: The feeding practices of most mothers were not according to the recommendation of WHO standard and consumption of micronutrient rich foods were very minimal. There is a need for promotion of optimal feeding and micronutrient rich food consumption for improving nutritional status.