Mothers' perception of children's nutritional status and feeding practices

Abstract

Maternal perception of the nutritional status of the child is a critical factor of the success of nutritional interventions. It is often difficult for mothers to recognize the actual nutritional status of their children in case of malnutrition. The study aimed at evaluating the mothers’ perception of the nutritional status of their children and determining the association of their perception with the feeding practices of children in a context of nutritional deficiencies. We conducted a secondary analysis of data from the baseline survey of a nutrition intervention program, which objective was to assess the effectiveness of a promotional care package in preventing malnutrition in children. This study included 2287 children 6-23 months and their mothers.
The analysis showed a poor to slight agreement between mothers’ perception of children’s weight and length, and their nutritional status assessed by wasting (WHZ z-score) and stunting (LAZ z-score) status (Cohen's kappa: 0.130 and 0.061 respectively). For wasted children, there was an association between underestimation of the child's nutritional status and the minimum meal frequency (ORa = 0.69 [0.53; 0.89]), and 'zero vegetable or fruit consumption’ (ORa = 0.64; [0.49; 0.85]). In this study, mothers of children 6- 23 months generally had a perception of good nutritional status of their children. However, the perception was in weak in agreement with the actual nutritional status of their children. Mothers’ misperception of children nutritional status was associated with inappropriate feeding practices