Childhood Malnutrition And Child Eating Behavior Among Preschool Children 2 To 4 Years In Umuahia South Local Government Area Abia State.:-Chikezie, Chinonso P

ABSTRACT

Eating behaviours have been associated with underweight and poor growth as well as with overweight especially among preschool children of 2-4 years. The study' assessed childhood malnutrition and child eating behaviour among preschool children 2 to 4 years. A Cross-sectional study design was used for the study. A purposive sampling techniques was used to select 246 respondents that participated in the study. A well-structured and validated questionnaire was used to secure information from the respondents. Data was obtained with the statistical package for service software (SPSS) version 23. The result showed that 44% ofthe children often loved food while less than half (32.6%) sometimes were interested in food, (41.1%) sometimes enjoys eating, (35.5%) sometimes gets full before the meal finished and (38.7%) sometimes get full up easily. It was observed that the (39.9%) children sometimes eat more when worried while some (30.1%) rarely eat when worried. The result also showed that (42.3%) the children had never eaten more when annoyed, while some of the children (25.8%) often eat more when anxious, some of the children (27%) rarely eat more when they had nothing else to do. It was also observed that 37.4% of the children sometimes eat less when angry, while some ofthe children (36.2%) sometimes eat when tired, some (41.1%) always eats more when happy and some eat less when upset. The height-for-age status showed that 33.7% (male) and 39.4% (female) ofthe preschool children had normal height-for-age. The result on weight-for-height also showed that 23.2% (male) and 30.1% (female) had normal weight for height. The body mass indexfor-age result revealed that a total of 50.4% ofthe children had normal weight. There was a positive relationship (P < 0.05) between weight-for-age and food fussiness. A positive relationship (P < 0.05) was also observed between weight-for-age status and emotional under eating of the preschool children. There was also a positive relationship (P