Background: Child malnutrition is one of the indicators of health status that the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends for measuring equity in health. Uttar Pradesh being second worst performing states in terms of childhood mortality, with under 5 mortality rate (U5MRC) of Uttar Pradesh 91 per 1000 births, therefore Nutritional Rehabilitation Centres (NRCs) were started in the state to control severe malnutrition.

Methods: It was prospective longitudinal study including 156 children admitted in Nutrition Rehabilitation Centers (NRCs) in a tertiary care center in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh between April 2013 to March 2014.

Results: 156 children with severe acute malnutrition (SAM) were admitted in the NRC during the study period. There were 86 males and 70 females. Mean mid upper arm circumference (MUAC) at the time of admission in 6-59 months age patients was 10.52 (±1.34) cms in boys and 10.39 (±1.17) cms in girls. Average weight gain of patients with weight for height -3 to -4 SD at the time of admission was 10.77 (±4.32) gms/kg/day, and for the group below -4SD group it was 13.38 (±6.14) gms /kg/day, This difference was found to be significant (p< 0.004). There was a significant correlation between average weight gain and MUAC with Pearson correlation value -0.208 (p<0.042).

Conclusion: Greater the severity of malnutrition in children, faster the catch up growth, which implies that every malnourished child can be weaned to healthy life if proper nutritional rehabilitation is provided. Malnutrition clinic in every pediatric set up can go a long way to reduce the childhood morbidity and mortality consequent to SAM