Under-nutrition is still a major contributor to disease and poor growth in vulnerable populations. Prolonged undernutrition affects physical health, mental and social development of children and exacts a heavy cost to their families and society at large. Insufficient food availability is an important cause of undernutrition, the ability or willingness to consume available foods is another major factor. Picky eating is one of the behaviors that children with difficulty or not to accept foods. Picky eating is relatively common among infants and children, often causing anxiety for parents and caregivers. Picking eating is often linked to nutritional problems, and is also the cause that parents take their child to doctor for examination and consultation. Objectives: To describe prevalence of picky eaters and nutritional status of children aged 1 to 5 and to find out the relationship between picky eating and nutritional status of children. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study. A sample size of 1100 children aged 1 to 5 had been selected and studied by using questionnaire for interviewing parents or caregivers to estimate prevalence of picky eaters; measuring weight, length/height to access nutritional status of children. Results: Prevalence of picky eaters based on parents or caregivers’ opinion and according to researchers were 43.3% and 22.2%, respectively. The most common signs of picky eating reported by parents or caregivers were eat slowly, mealtime lasted for over 30 minutes (39.7%), eat less (31.7%), keep food in mouth (23.5%). 35.9% of picky eaters had signs at the period of complementary feeding. Prevalence of underweight, overweight and stunting were 7.5%, 3.6% and 10.9%, respectively. There was no relationship between picky eating and stunting (p>0.05) but strong relationship between picky eating and underweight (p<0.001), wasting (p<0.001). Picky eaters were 4.02 times at risk of underweight compared to non-picky eaters (95% CI: 2.54-6.36). Conclusions: Picky eating is common and a risk factor of underweight, wasting. It should be a big concern to public health workers. |