Background. The nutritional well-being of young children is positively and
negatively affected by the interaction between food intake, health and care. Most
important, inadequate intake of food, energy and nutrients remains highly prevalent in
developing countries. Dietary standards designed to provide guidelines on basic nutrients
for sufficient growth and health that are found in the developed countries do not exist or
are not accessible to many in the third world or developing countries.
Purpose. The major focus of this study was to describe and explore the
relationship between the food and beverages consumed by children aged 1 to 5 years and
their anthropometric measurements as well as to determine the relationships between the
children’s food and beverage consumption, caregiver’s household food security and
children’s anthropometric measures.
Methods. A cross-sectional descriptive -correlational design was used. A
convenience sample including 99 pairs of caregivers and their children was recruited
from six clinical sites. Data collection employed face-to-face interviews and the
xii
participants responded to three instruments. The instruments included the Caregiver
Demographic Data Form, Child Food Frequency Questionnaire and the Household Food
Security Scale. In addition, anthropomorphic measurement including heights and weights
were obtained from children. Data were analyzed by descriptive methods, the Pearson
product moment correlations, independent sample t-tests and one-way ANOVA.
Results. The caregivers were aged 18 to 65 years (M = 33.65, SD = 10.50) and
children’s ages ranged from12-56 months (M = 28.99, SD = 12.9). Five percent had
weight-for-height z-scores at -1, while 16.2% had HAZ that were below the -2 z-score
indicating stunted growth. Thirty-one percent of children were at risk for overweight. The
five core/main food items that were frequently consumed by the children were sorghum,
milk, sugar, tea/coffee and yoghurt. The mean energy intake was 1618.4 kcal/d, (SD =
713.4) and the mean protein intake was 45.9 g/d (SD = 22.1). Nineteen percent of
caregivers were food secure while 28.3% and 20.2% were moderately and severely food
insecure respectively. The independent samples t-test revealed statistically significant
differences among the household food security score means for caregivers with low and
high education, suggesting that caregivers with low education were more likely to be
food insecure than their counterparts with higher education. Children’s total energy and
protein intakes were statistically significant and moderately correlated with height and
weight (r (97) =.35 p<.01 and r (97) =.32 p<.01) 2-tailed). The one-way ANOVA results
were [F (2, 96) = 9.19, p<.05] (energy) and [F (2, 96) = 6.59, p<.05] (protein). These
findings indicated that the average intake of energy and protein differed according to the
age groups of children.
xiii
Conclusion. Overall, the findings show that children in the study consumed a
limited number of food items that may lead to inadequate intake of nutrients such as
vitamins and minerals. In addition, the prevalence of household food insecurity, stunting
of growth among children and the BMI suggestive of higher risk for overweight warrant
further investigation. Future longitudinal studies should examine the associations
between dietary patterns and child health and development to provide evidence needed to
improve dietary advice given to parents of young children.