ABSTRACT

 Nutrition plays an important role in the health and development of children. Adequate nutrition during the first two years of life is very important to ensure optimal growth, physical and mental development. The first two years of life is the most critical for an infant, particularly from the nutritional stand point. Poor and inadequate nutrition can reduce immunity, increase susceptibility to disease, impair physical and mental development and reduce productivity. Nutritional status is the state of health of an individual as it is affected by the intake and utilization of nutrients; it depends on the quality and quantity of nutrients consumed and the body’s ability to utilize these nutrients to meet its metabolic needs. Nutritional status of children does not only directly reflect the socioeconomic status of the family and social wellbeing of the community, but also the efficiency ofthe health care system, and the influence ofthe surrounding environment. Food security is recognized as one of the challenges for the sustainable development of humanity and planet earth; although enough food is produced on a global scale to adequately meet the dietary requirements of current population, nearly 1 billion (the current population of Africa) still do not have enough to eat and frequently go to bed hungry. However, this results to malnutrition. This study was carried out and aimed at assessing the food security and nutritional status of mothers and their children aged 0-24 months in Ohafia Local Government Area ofAbia State, Nigeria through compiling their background and socio-economic information, determining their feeding pattern, assessing their anthropometric statuses and evaluating the relationship between their socioeconomic and anthropometric variables.. A random sampling study design was used to select three hundred and eighty nine respondents, mothers and children inclusive from both health centers and households in five villages through questionnaire administration. The anthropometric status of both mothers and children (weight, height,waist, hip, recumbent length) were measured, keyed in alongside other variables and were analyzed using descriptive statistics (frequency, percentages, mean and standard deviation) and Chi-square ofthe statistical package for social sciences (SPSS version 25). At the end of the research, the results showed that a higher proportion of the respondents by gender were males (50.9%) and a lower proportion were females (49.1%) with 27.5% of the respondents within the ages of 0-3 months, and 51.7% were mostly taken care of by their parents only, 61.7% had 1-3 numbers of siblings while 4.4% had above 9 numbers of siblings. It further showed that 24.2% of the respondents were civil servants, 40.4% had secondary educational qualification, 39.6% earned a monthly income of about #10,000- #20,000 and 62.7% spent #3000 to #15000. 45.5% ate thrice a day with 33.9% taking fruits always and 41.4% consuming vegetables thrice a week. About 35.5% of the children studied were mildly wasted, 16.7% were moderately wasted and 7.2% were severely wasted. It shows that about 40.9% of the children were mildly underweight, 10.8% ofthe children were moderately underweight and 1.0%'was severely underweight. The study further shows that 30.1% of the children were mildly stunted, 22.1% were moderately stunted and 21.3% was severely stunted while 48.1% of the women were overweight and 1.5% were underweight; 43.7% of the women had normal body mass index of 18.5-24.9 while 6.7% were obese; having body mass index 30 and above; 45.8% ofthe women were obese; having waist to hip ratio of 0.86 and above while 24.9% were underweight; having waist to hip ratio of 0.80 and below. 29.3% of the women has normal waist to hip ratio. Chi-square analysis showed no significant relationship (p>0.05) amongst the respondents' socio-economic status (occupation, education, income and weekly food expenses) and their nutritional status (stunted, wasted, underweight and the body mass index) ofthe respondents studied although a significant relationship (p=0.035) occurred between education and the body mass index of the respondents studied. The socio-economic characteristics observed were poor though most households had better living conditions. Household food insecurity was found in most of the households surveyed. Although majority ofthe respondents claimed to consume fruits and vegetables always, their rates of consumption were very poor and more than 70% of them skipped meals which lead to increased risk of disease such as diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular diseases. The respondents’ feeding patterns were determined by culture, religion, food availability, cost of products and health status. This study revealed a high prevalent rate of malnutrition among the children, although malnutrition was more prevalent in males than females. The degree of malnutrition as observed was mild to moderate with little severe cases. Survey location, sex, age, primary care taker (child’s guardian), number of siblings, mother’s level of education, income, occupation and feeding pattern affected the nutritional status of the children . Approaches such as home garden and maternal empowerment will go a long way to improve the food security status of the entire household. Nutrition education is also needed to improve the nutrition knowledge of the mothers and encourage healthy and appropriate infant young child feeding practices. Another important area to strengthen is the health sector by ensuring adequate healthcare is available, accessible and affordable to both mothers and their children and also ensuring environmental sanitation.