Mother’s Nutritional Knowledge and Practice towards Children under Two Years of Age and Its Impact on Their Health in Abuzaid Albuluk Pediatric Specialized Hospital in 2023

Abstract

Background: Nutritional knowledge and practise is an important measure to improve dietary habits and food choices. The daily food should contain balanced nutrition as needed to support optimal growth, avoid deficiency diseases and prevent the diseases which might interfere with the children health. Materials & Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional non-interventional hospital-based study was carried out among 122 mothers and 122 children by using a non-probability convenience sampling technique in the period of 15 March to 15 April 2023, and using interviews with structural questionnaires, the data was analyzed using SPSS version 26. Results: We found that most of the children had moderate health, while most of the mothers had moderate nutritional knowledge and practise towards their children, also we found that the relationship between mothers' knowledge and practise and child health was significant (P < 0.001). Conclusion: Mothers' knowledge and practise among children was moderate and children had moderate health. Wrong beliefs and cultural taboos play major roles in decreasing knowledge and practise.