Study on nutritional status of children under 5 years in palpa district, nepal: speacial reference to baal vita

Background: Malnutrition is a pathological state resulting from a relative or absolute deficiency or excess of one or more essential nutrients. Malnutrition is a major underlying cause of the child morbidity and mortality in Nepal. Adequate nutrition is a fundamental right for every human being. Malnourished child is depriving from physical and mental development. Objectives: To assess the nutritional status of children under 5 years and to find out the knowledge and practice regarding micronutrient powder “Baal vita” Materials and Methods: Descriptive cross sectional community based study was conducted in Palpa district, total of 390 respondents at the age of 6-59 months were selected with the help of multistage sampling. Through anthropometry, prevalence of underweight, stunting and wasting was determined. Results: Prevalence of underweight, stunting and wasting was 25.9%, 27.2% and 7.3% respectively. The association between age of the mother at the birth of the children and nutritional status of children is not statistically significant. Majority of the children (80.5%) used to take junk foods sometimes, followed by 16.7% very often, 2.8% children never used to take. Majority of the children (52.6%) were taken the micronutrient powder (first course) but the coverage of second course of micronutrient powder was 29.5% and followed by third course coverage was only 18.9%. Conclusion: The nutritional status of children in this study were found to be satisfactory because compared to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) target but the coverage of micronutrient powder is low