Does Maternal Factors Have A Bearing On The Health Of Their Offsprings.

Abstracts: Background: The development of the child is dependent on the mother and if the health of the mother suffers, the child's growth and development are in turn affected. The mother is also the first teacher of the child, and that is why the mother and child are treated as one unit. A mother is the principal provider of the primary care that her child needs during the first six years of his/her life. The type of care she provides depends to a large extent on her knowledge and understanding of some aspects of basic nutrition and health care. This begins at conception and continues until infancy, teenage and adulthood. Therefore, mothers are key players in the growth and development of children. Methodology: The study was carried out in the villages under RHTC, field practice area of Department of Community Medicine, Dehradun. A sample of 500 mothers with children in the age group of 0-36 months living in the registered population of RHTC were included, where mother's demographic profile, parity, diet during pregnancy were recorded. Results: Maternal factors as maternal age, education, parity diet & supplementary nutrition during pregnancy, emerged as significant predictors of under nutrition. Conclusion: The findings confirms the association of maternal factors with malnutrition of their children. This may involve public health enlightenment campaign discouraging teenage pregnancy and high parity of mothers which predisposes to poor nutritional status, poor diet during pregnancy which further increase the risk of poor outcomes both for the mother and the child. There is also need to increase female education as this will make them receptive to health interventions that will improve their nutritional status along with their children.

Trends in weaning practices among infants and toddlers in a hilly terrain of a newly formed state of India

Weaning plays a major role in determining the nutritional status of a child. Poor weaning practices during infancy and early childhood, resulting in malnutrition, contribute to impairment of cognitive and social development, poor school performance and reduced productivity in later life. The objective of this study is to know weaning practices of mothers of difficult terrain. Cross-sectional study was conducted in all villages under Rural Health Training Center, the field practice area of Department of Community Medicine. A total of 500 mothers with children within 3 years of age were included in the study. Pre-tested pre-designed semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect information on weaning practices. Majority of children [51.57%] were weaned at >6 months and were observed to be more under nourished [79.34%] as compared with those between 4 months and 6 months [61.50%]. Majority of boys were weaned earlier than girls irrespective of the age of the weaning. Malnutrition was found in majority of those children who were weaned inadequately in terms of both frequency and amount. The present study revealed suboptimal weaning practices among the mothers of hilly region. Thus, appropriate educational strategies should be directed particularly on counteracting various myths related to infant feeding Moreover, promotion of appropriate feeding should target not only on maternal caregivers, but also on other family members, particularly husbands and grandmothers, taking into account the social and cultural situation of the area