Background: Scarcity of suitable food, lack of purchasing power of the family as well as traditional beliefs and taboos about what the baby should eat, often lead to a sufficient balanced diet, resulting in malnutrition. In children, malnutrition is synonymous with growth failure. Malnourished children are shorter and weigh less than they should be for their age and height.
Materials and methods: The present study was conducted from September 2017 to November 2017.112 malnourish children, aged 6-60 months who were admitted to NRC during the study period at district hospital Meerut were assessed. Checklist based on operational guidelines on facility based management was used. Data was analyzed in Microsoft Excel and Epi info.
Result: In the studied population, there were 45 males and 67 females, out of which highest representation was from the age group of 13 to 24 months.67% of studied population belonged to schedule caste. The average weight gain during the stay at the center was 9.92±5.43g/kg/day. The average duration of stay at NRC was 12.01±1.61 days. Only 30% of mothers had appropriate knowledge regarding therapeutic diet and only 50% of the mothers know about the preparation of nutritious food from locally available foods.
Conclusion: Targeted supplementary nutrition and therapeutic nutrition with specific micronutrients when provided to malnourish children for 14 days by Nutrition Rehabilitation Center can be helpful to improve their nutritional status. There is need to scale up community awareness and community participation for NRCs.
Keywords: Malnutrition; nutrition rehabilitation center; under fives.