ABSTRACT
Considering the importance of nutrition in early years and mothers' prominent role, the objective of the present study was to evaluate the impact of nutritional education to mothers on 12-30 months toddlers food pattern. In this quasi-experimental study subjects were consisted of 242 mothers with their 12-30 months toddlers who were referring to health-care centers in Tehran, Iran, in 2006. After defining the number of the samples, allocation of each health-care center was done by PPS method and then sequentially distributed into two groups, intervention and control. Data collection was done in two stages: at the beginning of the study and one month after intervention by three tools 1] questionnaire 2] scale 3] tape meter. During three months, mothers who participated in nutrition education program completed the FFQ. The researcher gave adequate comments to intervention group by face to face teaching. Data analyzing was done by chi-square, paired t.test and analysis of variance of repeated measures. Before intervention, condition of food score was 6.850 and Z score was 2.789. After intervention, the condition of food score was 7.893 and Z score was found to be 1.722. Before the intervention, in both groups, meat, fat, and sugar consumption was higher than normal ranges. After the intervention, fruit and vegetable consumption was increased. Before intervention, the condition of food questionnaire score was in middle range in two groups while the condition in intervention group was increased after intervention. Z score before intervention in two groups shows overweight, but after the intervention losing of weight was seen