RESUMEN
Frequent and accurate assessment of growth is of primary importance in the care of children. Growth curves or charts are a standard part of any checkup, and they show health care providers how children are growing compared with other children of the same age and gender. Observation and recording of a growth parameter over a period of time permit early detection of any deviation from normal growth pattern. Weight is early affected by malnutrition. Length, on the other hand, is affected by malnutrition and also head circumference is affected if this is for at least 6 months. Human breast milk is the unique and superior form of infant nutrition against which all substitute feeding methods must be measured with regards to growth, health, development, and other effects. Our aim of this work is to evaluate height, weight and head circumference in healthy infants and infants with malnutrition, in the first year with different types of feeding. In our study, we evaluated the measurements of one hundred and forty infant; 20 normal nevvborns, 60 babies at 6 months and 60 at 12 months of age also we recalled the pattern of their feeding. History about the type of feeding, breast, formula and mixed feeding were taken, complete clinical examination including anthropometric measurements were performed including weight, height and head circumference . Cases of malnutrition were diagnosed according to water low classification. Our results found that a statistically significant difference between head circumference and length between breast, mixed fed infants compared to formula fed infants, being higher in infants exclusively breast fed and mixed fed infants and this nutritional superiority continued - to a slightly less significant degree throughout the end of year. In our study we found that malnutrition not only affects weight and height but also affects head circumference. Our study showed this strong linkage between malnutrition and failure to establish breast feeding as we found that all malnourished cases included in our study were formula fed exclusively. Encourage of breast feeding is a protective against malnutrition