Introduction: Under-five mortality rate in India has been steadily decreasing but still the contribution of malnutrition to child deaths is quite high. Despite decades of nutritional interventions, Out of 1.04 million fewer than five children mortality in India the year 2017, almost 706,000 were malnourished till date.
Aim: To estimate the proportion of infants aged 1-6 months with growth faltering and their severity, to examine the association of grades of anthropometric failure, feeding practices, background characteristics and severity of morbidity of infants aged 1-6 months with mortality.
Materials and method: The present study was a hospital-based, observational, descriptive study. This Study was conducted from 18 months at Department of Pediatric Medicine of College of Medicine and Sagore Dutta Hospital, Kolkata-700058 in West Bengal. Total 83 patients were included in this study.
Result: It was observed in present study that 4 in every 10 infant aged less than 6 months admitted in hospital were underweight including 1/10th severe underweight. In our study, 3 in every 10 infant had stunting including 1/10th severe stunting. It was observed that 5 in every 10 infant aged less than 6 months admitted with ARI in hospital were underweight including 2/10th severe underweight. In Severely wasted group, 5 (10.4%) patients had Early initiation of Breastfeeding Which was statistically significant (p=0.0090). In our study number of patients had Up to date Immunization status was[49(100)] which was statistically significant (p=0.0056). It was observed that infants aged 1-6 months with Night feeding in Severely underweight group were 5 (10.4%) infants which was statistically significant (p=0.0258).
Conclusion: Present study showed that growth faltering in early infancy was associated with morbidity and mortality.
