The nutritionally at risk child. Part 2 : study of factors pertinent to the child, siblings or mother.

Several high risk factors were evaluated in an attempt to determine the Egyptian children who are more prone to become malnourished. The study included 110 children with energy protein malnutrition and 98 normal children. Their ages were between 4 months and 3 years. Among the factors investigated, the 2nd 6 months of life was found to be the most critical for nutritional deficiency. Presence of previous siblings with malnutrition, presence of more than 2 sibling deaths and presence of history of severe diarrhoea with dehydration were significantly related to the nutritional status of children. Twinning, birth order and birth interval showed some relation to malnutrition but were not statistically significant. The sex of the child and maternal weight did not influence the nutritional state of children. However, these low-socialclass children were found to be mostly (92.8%) breast fed.