Yafteh

Background : The most important factors affecting nutritional status of infants and its improvement is mothers’ knowledge, attitude and practice regarding proper nutrition of their children. This study aimed to assess knowledge, attitude and behavior practice of mothers having children of 6-36 months in health centers of Khorramabad on proper feeding of their children.

Materials and Methods: In this cross- sectional descriptive-analytic study , information of 302 mothers of 6-36 months children referred to health centers in Khorramabad were collected thorough maternal health records and interview records , and data were analyzed using  SPSS 21 software, chi-square test, Spearman and Pearson correlation coefficient.

Results: Based on the findings and obtained scores by mothers, 69.9% of  the women had good knowledge,69.9% had good attitude and 64.6% had good practice on proper nutrition for their children. There was a significant relationship between mothers’ attitude and education, fathers’ education and mothers’ occupation. There was a significant relationship between fathers’ level of practice, job, number of children, and birth order. There was no significant relationship between the attention level to mass media and attitude and knowledge score, but there was a significant correlation with practice. There was no significant relationship between mothers’ knowledge and education, fathers’ education, mothers’ job, fathers’ job, income, number of children and birth order.

Conclusion: According to the results, the level of knowledge, attitude and practice in mothers is in a good level, but due to the potentional role of father in mother^,s practice, it seems that a family based educational programs in health centers, hospitals and mass media is necessary.