CORRELATION OF NUTRITIONAL STATUS OF MOTHERS AND THEIR CHILDREN AGED 6- 60 MONTHS

Objectives: This study was conducted on 152 mother-child pairs; to look for the relationship of maternal nutritional status and iron status with that of their children. Methods: Anthropometric data were obtained for mothers and their children and applied to appropriate charts to estimate weight for length Z score, weight for age Z score and height for age Z score for children, and body mass index was estimated for each mother. Hemoglobin, mean corpuscular volume, serum iron, total iron binding capacity and transferrin saturation percentage were measured for 75 mother-child pairs. Results: Concerning children; 30 (19.8%) have moderate and severe wasting, 44 (28.9%) have moderate and severe underweight and 28 (18.4%) were with moderate and severe stunting. Nine mothers (6%) were with underweight and protein-calorie malnutrition (body mass index ≤ 19 kg/m 2), while 62 (40.7%) were obese. There was a significant negative association between the age of the child and his/her hemoglobin level, mean corpuscular volume (P-value <0.05), serum iron and transferrin saturation percentage (P-value <0.01). The study has revealed also that there was a significant positive association between the hematological parameters of children with the hematological parameters of their mothers, P value <0.01. Conclusion: The study didn’t reveal a significant association between the mothers' and the children's nutritional status parameters. However, there was a highly significant association between the mothers' and the children's hematological parameters.