Nutritional and Food Security Status of Children Under Five Years in Ethiopia: A Review

Malnutrition in children remains one of the most important public health and developmental problems in the developing world, mainly affecting the poor and under privileged. Children are most vulnerable to malnutrition in developing countries because of low dietary intakes, lack of appropriate feeding practices, food insecurity and inequitable distribution of food within the households. Therefore, this paper was designed to review nutritional and food security status of children under five years in Ethiopia. The review showed that child under nutrition in Ethiopia is a concern for the households with poor economic level and it covers large areas and affects significant number of people. This work also reviewed that in different regions of Ethiopia, magnitude of under nutrition and food insecurity were very high in rural areas where livelihood depends on backward farming system. Moreover, this work indicate that household food insecurity is a critical variable for understanding the nutritional status of children in low income countries; as low income is associated with poor diet, food insecurity and poor child health. Therefore, depending on reviewed document, to address nutritional and food security issue in Ethiopia, all responsible bodies should incorporate different research outputs to design programs to tackle under nutrition and food insecurity problems in Ethiopia.