PENGARUH TINGKAT PENGETAHUAN GIZI ORANGTUA DAN PRAKTIK PEMBERIAN MAKAN TERHADAP STATUS GIZI ANAK USIA PRASEKOLAH DI PAUD SAI AN-NAIM

This study aims to show the relationship between parents' nutritional knowledge and feeding practices affecting the nutritional status of preschool children at PAUD SAI AN-NAIM. This study is a quantitative study with a cross-sectional design with 66 parents of preschool children aged 3 to 6 years with total sampling. Statistical analysis used the Chi-square test with a significance level of p < 0.05. The results showed 47.0% of parents had a good understanding of nutrition, but the implementation of appropriate feeding practices only occurred in 28.8% of cases. Among the children whose nutritional status was assessed based on weight for height standard, 56.1% had normal weight, while 22.7% fell into the underweight category, and 21.2% exceeded normal weight as overweight. Chi-square test results showed no statistically significant association between parents' nutritional knowledge and their children's nutritional status (p=0.265). This study showed a significant relationship between feeding practices and the nutritional status of preschool children, although parents' nutritional knowledge was not statistically correlated. Feeding practices had a statistically significant relationship with the Chi-square test result, with a p-value of 0.042. This indicates a gap between parents' level of knowledge about nutrition and how they implement it in their practices.