ABSTRACT
Background. School feeding programmes are intended to alleviate short-term hunger, improve nutrition and cognition of children, andprovide incomes to families.Objectives. To assess the nutritional status of children receiving meals provided by the National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP) inCapricorn Municipality, Limpopo Province, South Africa.Methods. The setting was 18 randomly selected schools on the NSNP in Capricorn District. The total sample comprised 602 randomlyselected schoolchildren from grades 4 to 7, aged 10 (26.6%), 11 (35.4%) and 12 (35.4%). Socioeconomic characteristics, anthropometricmeasurements, dietary patterns and school attendance were determined. Children were interviewed to assess their nutritional status using avalidated questionnaire. Descriptive statistics such as means, standard deviations (SDs) and ranges were used for socioeconomic parametersand dietary patterns, and z-scores for anthropometric data.Results. The results showed that boys (9.5%) and girls (7.8% ) were underweight. The prevalence of stunting in the sample was 11.3% forboys and 7.4% for girls, whereas boys (3.6%) and girls (4.2%)were wasted, with az-score of 2 SD. School attendance was good.Conclusion. The nutritional status of most subjects in the study was within the acceptable range as indicated by the assessment of growthusing anthropometric measurements
Subject(s)
Anthropometry , Child , Nutrition Assessment , Nutritional Status , South AfricaABSTRACT
Objective: To determine the breast-feeding and weaning practices of mothers and the nutritional status of infants in the Vhembe District of Limpopo Province.Design: A descriptive and exploratory study was done. A sample of 185 mothers with 185 infants 12 months and younger was selected from five primary healthcare clinics. A validated questionnaire; which consisted of questions relating to demographic data; breast-feeding and weaning practices; was used. The weight and length measurements of the infants were taken.Results: The majority (97) of the mothers were still breast-feeding at the time of the interviews. Only 7;6practised exclusive breastfeeding;however; while 43;2had introduced solid foods at three months and 15before two months. The weaning food given by most of the mothers was maize-meal soft porridge and had been introduced before four months of age. The Z-score classification was used and showed that stunting (18;9); underweight (7) and wasting (7) were present among the infants but that only wasting was found to be a disorder of public-health significance.The nutritional status of the infants was therefore not significantly influenced by the breast-feeding and weaning practices of the mothers or other demographic parameters.Conclusion: Breast-feeding was still practised by many of the mothers but exclusive breast-feeding was rare