Nutritional Surveillance System Development for Children 3-5 years old at Lomsak District

Abstract

Background: Good nutrition is the basic of lifelong good health. Children 3-5 years old is an important age, the brain and body are constantly growing and developing. It is a period of high learning. Promoting nutrition in early childhood therefore, it is a good value invest.
Objective: To study prevalence of nutritional status in children 3-5 years old, study the food consumption behavior of the family and assessing the nutritional surveillance system  for children 3-5 years old at Lomsak hospital and health promoting hospital, Lomsak.
Method: Cross sectional descriptive study. A simple random sample of 380 children aged 3-5 years, 32 nurses in charge of maternal and child health and 1 pediatrician. By using a data record form and an assessment form. Analyze data with descriptive statistics.
Result: The prevalence of obesity was 2.10%, moderate and severe wasting was 3.7% and moderate and severe stunting was 11.58%. Food consumption behavior lessthan the criteria was food consumption in each group and iron-containing foods and medicines. The inappropriate consumption behaviors included eating sweets (µ=2.09, SD.=0.78), drinking sweetened beverages (µ=2.31, SD.=0.84), snacking (µ=2.25, SD.=0.84), and Repeated menu dishes (µ=2.44, SD.=0.85). The nutrition surveillance system is responsible for the health promoting hospitals. There are guidelines and referrals under the supervision of a
pediatrician but not covered.
Conclusion: Children aged 3-5 years are under the normal weight and height ratio. And nutritional status, both under and above the threshold. There are many inappropriate consumption behaviors. And Nutrition surveillance systems, there are still not covered
activities in many areas.