Nutritional status of children under two years and its associated factors in urban and rural areas of Jahrom, 2007-8

Breastfeeding and the complementary feeding have a prominent role in the growth and development of children. This survey was designed to assess the nutritional status of children under two years in urban and rural areas of Jahrom.

This was a cross-sectional study on 435 children aged 18-24 months and living in rural and urban areas. Data were collected through a questionnaire and descriptive and analytic statistics were employed.

In this survey, the mean (SD) age of the children was 20.86  3.305 years. Exclusive breast feeding was 55.4 percent and the mean (SD) age of exclusive breastfeeding was 5.49 ± 1.64 years. Moreover, 26.9 percent of the children were fed with artificial milk. The mean (SD) age to start supplementary feeding was 6.040.956 and that of continuation of breast feeding until 2 years of age was18.58  5.321.

Considering the considerable lack of exclusive breast feeding and its resulting complications and consumption of about two times as much artificial milk in the urban as compared to rural areas, it seems that there should be an attempt to educate mothers on the disadvantages of lack of exclusive breast feeding and advantages of breastfeeding specially in rural health care centers.