Impact of mother diet practice on the nutritional statute of their children aged 0 to 36 months

In spite of the efforts carried out by the Cameroonian government and international partners to resolve the problem of malnutrition, the rate of malnutrition remains high in the Adamawa region in particular where the prevalence of acute malnutrition in children aged 6 to 59 months is 5.1%. A case-control study of the impact of mother diet practice on the nutritional statute of their children aged 0 to 36 months realized at the Regional Hospital of Ngaoundéré enrolled 155 couple of mother and child(75 cases and 80 controls). The nutritional indicators, weight/height, and information’s concerning maternal breastfeed practice and dietary supplements were collected and compared between the case and control groups. Nutritional practices that impacts the unexpected arrival of malnutrition are: non-exclusive mother breastfeed from birth to the age of 6 months (p=0.001), breastfeed of new born babies 24 hours after birth (p=0.001), early introduction of supplementary food in the diet of children (p=0.003), consumption of baby food of weaning non enriched (p=0.01) and the consumption of tea by children (p=0.004).Changing thesebad habits of dietary practices of mothers will help prevent and treat malnutrition in children.