Feeding Patterns Among Stunted Children Under-Five Years in Dodoma City in Tanzania

Background: Appropriate feeding pattern is important to prevent malnutrition and to achieve normal growth. Aim of the study: was to identify the feeding patterns among stunted children attending outpatient departments in central districts hospitals in Dodoma-Tanzania. Study design: descriptive cross-sectional study was used. Setting: This study was conducted in the 7 outpatient clinics affiliated to the 7 main hospitals in all districts of Dodoma city-Tanzania. Subjects: Convenient sample of 175 under-five children and their mothers/caregivers were selected. Tools of data collection: Three tools were used for data collection. The first tool was “Feeding Patterns of Stunted Children Structured Interview Schedule”. The second tool was “A 24 hours’ diet recall Structured Interview Schedule”, While, the third tool was “Anthropometric measurement. Results: The results of this study showed that the majority (81.7%) of the children had low dietary diversity. The vast majorities of the children were stunted and less than one fifth were severely stunted. On the other hand, less than one fifth of the children were underweight, 5.1% were wasted, 4.6% were severely wasted, and 2.3% were over- weight. Conclusion: The study concluded that low dietary diversity is prevalent among stunted under- five children with several correlates related to the children themselves and their families. Recommendations: It is essential to enhance the nutritional pattern of the under-five children and increase the dietary diversity in order to overcome the problem of malnutrition among them.