Introduction: Diarrhea is a leading cause of mortality in children in developing countries and the condition is worse in slums. In order to provide effective preventive and management strategies, it is important to identify factors associated with the disease. This study was carried out to investigate the risk factors of diarrhea in  children under five years of age in urban slums.   Methods: Parents of all children under five years from the urban slums of Tansen municipality, Palpa, Nepal were interviewed using a standardized pretested questionnaire and proforma. Parental variables, environmental factors, and presence of diarrhea in those children in past three months were collected by trained enumerators and the data were analyzed with statistical software SPSS-10.   Results: A total of 450 under five years children were enrolled in the study. There were 216 (48%) male and 234 (52%) female children with F:M ratio of 1.08:1. Occurrence of diarrhea was lower if the children were breast-fed for more than six months, well-nourished, used fountain water for drinking, or used boiled or treated water. Similarly, diarrhea prevalence was lower if father had a regular job, daily income in the family was more than one US dollar, there was a toilet in the house, practice of hand washing was followed before feeding or preparing food, or there was no child suffering from diarrhea in the neighborhood.   Conclusion: There are a few variables that are significantly related to diarrhea in children under five years of age. In order to decrease the diarrheal episodes in children in the slums of the developing countries, priority could be given in the improvement of those variables.

Background: The neonatal period of the small for gestational age (SGA) neonates is the most vulnerable phase; the neonatal morbid conditions along with the mortality being the major health issues in the developing countries like Nepal. The objective of this study was to assess the morbidity pattern of the SGA neonates admitted in the neonatal intensive care unit. Methods: A hospital base cross-sectional study was carried out in 100 SGA neonates admitted in the neonatal care unit of College of Medical Sciences Teaching Hospital, Bharatpur, Nepal from May 2020 to April 2021 Small for gestational age neonates (SGA) was defined as birth weight <10th percentile for gestational age by Lubchenco’s growth chart. Infant characteristics and neonatal outcomes were assessed during the hospital stay and the data was entered in the SPSS v23.0.  Results: Among the total 100 cases of SGA neonates, 66 % were male. The mean birth weight was 1900 ±SD 381gm (range 1000-2500 gm). Term SGA neonates accounted for 60% while preterm SGA neonates were 40%. Common morbidities seen in SGA neonates were sepsis (44%), hyperbilirubinemia (34%), perinatal depression/birth asphyxia (34%) and shock (22%). While comparing the morbidities between term and preterm neonates, a significant correlation was observed between hypothermia (p-value = 0.001), polycythemia (p-value = 0.001), NEC (p-value= 0.004) and perinatal depression/asphyxia (0.013) with the period of gestation. Mortality was observed in 8% due to various perinatal problems.  Conclusions: From this study, we can conclude that SGA is associated with various morbidities, sepsis being the most common morbidity amongst perinatal asphyxia, hyperbilirubinemia, hypothermia and hypoglycemia.