Abstract:

Malnutrition is a considerable contributor to child mortality and morbidity. Child malnutrition which is determined by dietary practice of mothers of under five children. The poor child dietary practices of mothers shows a correlation with child malnutrition in Nigeria is persistent, continuing to be an alarming burden. The dietary practice of kids under the age of five years is a critical indicator of nutritional outcomes of under five children and health status. An understanding of the influencers of the dietary practice of children can act as a catalyst in combatting all forms of malnutrition. The purpose of this paper was to review selected studies concerning the dietary practices influence on the nutritional status of children in Ilorin Metropolis. Studies were selected from electronic databases, which were PubMed, Google Scholar, Sci- space, Consensus. The keywords that were used to search studies and articles from the selected database were: risk factors, , dietary practices,child nutritional status, children under the age of five years, Nigeria, malnutrition, underweight, stunted, wasting, and over-nutrition. Findings from this study reported that the child dietary practices by mothers has a significant influencing on the body max index of respondent with outcome showing association between dietary practices and undernutrition more,followed by overweight and normal children with the least associated were thin and obsessed respondent reported on the nutritional status of children under the age of five years.. The results show that the dietary practice of children is affected by mothers age at first birth. Therefore mothers age at first birth can significantly contribute to formulating policies on right dietary prayer that can enhance nutrition security especially young mothers between 18 and 25years old. Moreover, mothers age at first birth brings insights into strategic interventions to enhance dietary practices that eradicate all forms of malnutrition associated with under nutrition of their understanding five children.