Abstract: Objectives: The aim of the study is to evaluate the use of local flours in supplementary feeding for 6 to 24 month old children in relation to their nutritional status in Abidjan.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted on 480 mother-child couples in twelve maternal and child protection centers located in four municipalities in Abidjan. Questionnaires focused on the economic characteristics of mothers, the frequency of use of local flours, sources of local flours, ingredients used for flour production. The local composite flours mainly consumed by the children were sampled for biochemical analysis.

Results: Our of the 480 mothers, 73% had an income-generating activity and 27% had no activity, 10% of them were students. About 13% of the mothers with income-generating activities use only local flours, 10% of them mainly use industrial flours and 50% alternately use local flours and industrial flours. All mothers used cereals for flour production, 1% of the mothers used cassava and 98.54% used soya flour as supplement. The local flour mainly consumed, "Anango baka" with two variants, was unbalanced as far as its nutrient composition is concerned. The nutritional status of the children surveyed showed that stunting was the most widespread form of malnutrition with a prevalence of 17.9%.

Conclusion: The three local composite flours used by the mothers showed a poor nutritional value. A high rate of chronic malnutrition has been reported for 6 to 24 month old children visiting maternal and child protection centers located in Abidjan.

Keywords:  Complementary feeding, Child nutrition, Malnutrition status, flours.

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Abstract:  Background and Aim: Every year in the world millions of children die from malnutrition and infectious diseases. Children under the age of five are affected more quickly than other age groups from negative conditions. This study is aimed to determine the risk factors of malnutrition and incidence of malnutrition in children aged 1-4 years living in Konya.

Materials and Methods: This is a cross-sectional epidemiological study. The survey about demographical information about the child and their family, child's nutrition and anthropometric measurements described by both Z-scoring and GOMEZ classification, was conducted between May-December,2016 with 1000 children aged 1-4 years in Konya province. Descriptive statistics, chi-square test, student t-test and multivariate logistic regression were performed by SPSS 18.0 considering p<0.05 as statistically significant.

Results:According to the GOMEZ classification, 18.7% of children living in Konya are malnourished. According to Z-score, 3.5% (n=35) of the children were found to be underweight and 7.2% (n=72) were found as stunted. Factors affecting the malnutrition were the age range of children, the working status of the mother, the kinship status between the parents, the number of living children, maternal age, birth weight, the duration of breastfeeding, the time spent on TV/computer, the attitude and anxiety level of the mother when her child does not eat and the mother's nutrition education.

Conclusion: Malnutrition is a common problem and its rate is high in Konya.It is suggested that health professionals should educate the society, especially mothers by organizing various training meetings. Moreover, it can be emphasized that health planners should prepare a program to determine malnourished children considering the risk factors of malnutrition in health screens and first step medical centers. 

Keywords:  Malnourished child, anthropometric measurement.

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