A high prevalence of stunting in six-moth children is associated with food behavior of mother and common infant feeding in rural area of Lwiro, a longitudinal study.

Background: Stunting (height or age below 2 SD) is a major public health worldwide; however published studies regarding food and feeding malpractices of both mothers and their children and its impact on stunting are scarce in South-Kivu Province. Methods: We conducted a longitudinal study in rural area of Lwiro. One hundred thirty six mother-infant pairs were concerned by the study. The data was entered in Excel and analyzed by SPSS (Statistical Analysis Software) version 26.0. WHO Anthropometrics software helped to calculate Z score. The descriptive statistic was performed to determine the prevalence of independents variables. In addition, a multinomial logistic was run to establish predictor’s factors of all stages of stunting. A multinomial logistic regression model was fitted to calculate the odds ratios and their related 95% confidence interval for all stages of stunting by socioeconomic, household characteristic and food malpractice. Results: The study highlights a low prevalence (3/130, 2.3%) of underweight, a critical prevalence (32.7%) of wasting and a very high prevalence (84.6%) of stunting in the study region. Of the last, (35.4%, 46/130), (26.9%, 35/130) and (22.3%29/130) are severely, mildly and marginally stunted respectively. However, a high prevalence of overweight (38.1%, 51/134) and a low prevalence of obese mothers (11/134, 8.2%) are observed in the region. A statistically association between severe stunting of children and to be married and living with a husband and living in Cegera village, p=0.04 and p=0.034 respectively. Thereby, children from Cegera’s region are eighteen, nine and forty-two more likely to be severe, moderate and mild stunting. Secondly, the result showed that spacing pregnancy for 2 to 3 years was statically associated with moderately stunted (p=0.028). Children from aforementioned mothers were seven and three times more likely to be moderate and mild malnourished. The results found that children who were weighted low at birth were protected against severe stunting (OR<1), but were exposed to both moderate and mildly stunting (OR>1). Likewise, children born smaller were predisposed to both moderate and mildly stunting (OR>1). In fact, children from lactating mothers who have not changed meal during lactation were around three more likely to be severe and moderate stunting, respectively. Regarding feeding behavior of the infants, being exclusively breastfed within 6 month has protected against all the three stages (OR<1) of stunting. Not breastfeeding the infants at day times was statistically associated with two stage of stunting (severe and moderate) (p=0.032 and 0.036). On the other hand, complementary feeding with porridge and with fruits were statistically associated with severe stunted (p=0.000 and 0.029) and moderate stunting (p=0.000 and 0.005). In fact, children fed with cow milk, powder milk, porridge,