Growth indicators and nutritional supplement evaluation in 6-12 months year old children’s: A perspective from Ilam

Introduction:The study of nutritional status and children growth monitoring can play an important role in the diagnosis of developmental disorders in the early stages of life. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to examine the growth chart and nutrition supplements in children of 6-12 months old in Ilam.Material and Methods:This study was performed using data from 200 health records of children aged 6-12 months who referred to Ilam health centers in 2017. The sampling method was multistage cluster sampling. Weight measurement performed in kilograms and height and head circumference measured in cm and all specimen measurements performed in identical conditions. Data analysis carried out using SPSS.21 with a confidence level of 0.5.Results:Out of 200 cases, 89(44.5%) were male and 111(55.5%) were female. The mean age was 9.44 ± 1.23 months. Among investigated children, 39% (78children) in terms of weight to age index, 18.5% (37children) in terms of height to age index of developmental delay, and 24% (48children) in terms of head circumference to the age had undesirable growth. In addition, 55.5% of children had started baby food in an improper time. In addition, 44.5% were breastfed. The findings demonstrated that there is a significant difference in the weight to age index in terms of gender (p=0.024). Moreover, height and head circumference to age indices had a statistically significant relationship with weight to age index (p<0.05).Conclusions:Underweight cases in boys were more than girls and chronic malnutrition in girls was higher than boys. Therefore, long-term studies are needed for more accurate evaluations.