Assessment of Nutritional Knowledge among Under – Five Children Mothers in Selected Secondary Health Facilities in Abeokuta South Local Government Area, Ogun State, Nigeria

Human nutrition is the science of how food and its components interact with the body to support life, growth, and health. Mothers’ knowledge of under-five feeding practices has a lot of implications for the nutritional status of the child as it influences how the child is fed. This study seeks to assess the Nutritional knowledge among under-five children’s mothers in some selected secondary health facilities, in Abeokuta South Local Government Area, Ogun State, Nigeria. The study adopted descriptive cross-sectional design with sample size of 201 respondents (mothers of under-five years’ children) using criterion-based purposive sampling technique. A standardized self-structured questionnaire was given to three experts from the field of nursing for evaluation and validation. Data collected from the selected respondents were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS), version 21. Findings of the study revealed that majority of the respondents 91(48.1%) are within the age group of 25-35years, 91(48.1%) had secondary education while 115 (60.9%) had 2-3 children. 95(50.3%) had moderate nutritional knowledge. There were no significant differences between socio demographic variables of age (X2 3.16, p> 0.05) educational qualification (X2 4.19, p > 0.05) parity (X2 2.12, p> 0.05) and knowledge of feeding of under five children; age (X2 2.10 ,p>0.05), educational qualification (X2 4.18, p>0.05), parity (X2 2.14, p>0.05). The study concluded that most mothers of under-five children in the research area had moderate nutritional knowledge of their children.