Chapter I
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
According to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, 2005 – a mother
is a female parent of a child. The child could be both natural or adopted.
A mother and the child could be considered as one unit for rendering
health services including nutrition. Basavanthappa (2006) gave the
following reasons for nutritional practices between mothers and child:
● During ante natal period the foetus is part of the mother. The
period of development of the foetus is about 40 weeks. During this
period, the foetus obtains all necessary nutrients and oxygen from
the mother’s blood.
● The health of the child is intricately linked to mother’s health
● Certain diseases afflicting the mother during pregnancy can have
their deleterious effects on the health of the foetus.
● After birth, the child is dependent for its feeding upon the mother,
at least in the first year of life
● During the first few years of life, the child usually accompanies the
mother during her visits to health facilities and there are few
occasions and children are not simultaneously called for
● The mental and social development of the child is also dependent
on the mother. The mother is the earliest teacher of the child. The
death of mother causes a maternal deprivation syndrome in the
child.

Children make up 47% of Nigeria and many of them are chronically
hungry and malnourished (Addo, 2005). A child is any human being
younger than eighteen years of age.
One measure of a society is how prepared its children are for the future.
Nutrition plays an important role in child’s development of a healthy
lifestyle and therefore a pivotal in whether the child reaches optimum
growth and development.
Nutrition is the scientific study of food and how the body uses it (Addo,
2005). We eat food to live, to grow, to keep healthy and well, and to get
energy for work and play. food is made up of different nutrients needed
for growth and health.
All nutrients needed by the body are available through food. The body
therefore needs diet that contains a variety of foods in adequate amount.
Adequate diet must represent a total diet providing sufficient protein,
carbohydrate, fat, minerals, vitamins, fibres and water in their right
proportion. A combination of foods can lead to an adequate diet, as no
food by itself has all the nutrients needed for full growth and health.
Each nutrient in a diet has a specific uses in the body. most nutrients do
their best work in the body only when teamed up with other nutrients. All
persons, throughout life, have need for the same nutrients, but in varying
amounts. The amounts of nutrients needed are influenced by age, sex,
size, activity and the state of health of the individual (Addo, 2005).

The way food is handled influences the amount of nutrient such as its
safety, its appearance and it state. Handling means everything that
happens to food while it is being grown, processed, stored and prepared
for eating (Worthington, 2004 as quoted by Kozier and Erb’s, 2007).
The term ‘nutrient’ is considered as the sum total of all interactions
between an organism and the food it consumes (Angela and Margaret,
2002). Nutrition is important to maintaining health and to preventing
diseases and death. When illness or injury occurs, optimal nutrition is an
essential factor in promoting healing and resisting infection and other
complications.
The benefits of good nutrition can never be over emphasized. Besides
helping an individual maintain a healthy weight, good nutrition is
essential for the body and all its systems to function optimally for a life
time. In fact, the benefits of good nutrition can be found in physical and
mental health because a healthy diet provides energy, promotes good
sleep and gives the body what it needs to stay healthy. When examining
all the benefits of good nutrition one quickly realized that eating healthy
and making healthy foods choices results in a much better life style.
Anyone can start enjoying the benefits of good nutrition by changing one
eating habit a week. When one cuts down on foods high in fat and
replace them with whole grain foods, low fat foods and fresh fruits and
vegetables, he or she will be reaping the benefits of good nutrition.

Madakiya community is one of the communities that make up the Bajju
Chiefdom of Zangon Kataf local government area of Kaduna state. It
has a population of about 10,000 inhabitants as provided in the 2005
National Population Census figures. About 70% of its people are
predominantly farmers, 20% are civil servants and the remaining 10%
are craft-men and women. The major agricultural produce in this
community include food crops, cash crops as well as livestock. In this
community, mothers play a vital role in ensuring food security in the
home. Often mothers are responsible for providing food for the family,
as well as making a happy home and caring for children. This
supporting responsibilities of mothers in the home makes the researcher
to assess the nutritional practices by mothers as it affects children in
Madakiya community.

Statement of the Problem
A number of nutritional studies have been conducted among Nigerian
children and the results show that undernutrition is characterized by
stunting, wasting and underweight affects substantial proportion of the
children. Severe vitamin A, iodine and iron deficiencies were also
reported among children (Addo, 2005).
According to the African Child Article 14 of the Charter on the Right and
Welfare of the African Child states that “every child shall have the right to enjoy the best state of physical, mental and spiritual health whose
strategy include assurance of provision of adequate nutrition”. Although
freedom from hunger is declared a fundamental human right to everyone
yet many people with children inclusive grow hungry and cannot obtain
the effective food demanded for survival.
The Madakiya community is no an exceptional in this matter and
therefore, the quest of the researcher to assess the nutritional practices
by mother as it affects children in Madakiya community of Kaduna state.
Purpose of the Study
The general purpose of the study was to identify factors that stand as
hindrances to proper nutritional practices by mothers with the aim of
eliminating or changing them for the best.
Thus, the purpose of the study was to access the nutritional practices by
mothers in Madakiya community of Kaduna state specifically the study
was intended to:
i) Determine the effect of socio economic factor on nutritional
practices by mothers in Madakiya community of the Kaduna state
ii) Find out cultural beliefs on nutritional practices by mothers in
Madakiya community of Kaduna state
iii) Find out the educational awareness of mothers as a factor on
nutritional practices as it affects children in Madakiya community.

Research Questions
i) What is the socio-economic factor on nutritional practices by
mothers in Madakiya community?
ii) What are the effect of cultural beliefs on nutritional practices by
mothers in Madakiya community?
iii) What is the effect of educational awareness of mothers on
nutritional practices in Madakiya community?
Significance of the Study
The significance of the study on its ability to identify the socio economic,
cultural beliefs and educational awareness of mothers in Madakiya
community with a view to bringing measures to improving the nutritional
status of children. The study will therefore be significant in helping the
community to identify those bad aspects of their culture and beliefs that
has been contributing to improper nutrition of their wards and to embrace
those cultures and beliefs that promote proper nutrition for proper growth
and development of their children. The study will also be significant in
broadening the knowledge of the people on what nutrition is benefits of
nutrition and the essential and non essential nutrients required for good
health, growth and development.
The findings of this study if adopted will go a long way to assist
government at all level to have an insight on the true state of child nutrition in Madakiya community. It will serve as a clue to either
implement or improve on those policies that will enhance the nutritional
status of its citizens.
Lastly, the study will serve as a resource material for new students
undergoing research on nutritional practices in Kaduna Polytechnic.
Scope of the Study
The research project is delimited to nutritional practices by mothers only.
Therefore other factors on child nutrition were not treated.