الفهرس 
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Abstract
The present study was carried out in Ismailia city. Subjects included 377 who were selected using systematic random sample from preschool infants with age between 1 month and 2 years in Ismailia city nurseries, kindergartens and primary health care units. Each child was subjected to full history taking including: age, sex, residence, father’s education and occupation, mother’s education and occupation and family income, assessment of feeding practices and feeding disorders in addition to general examination and anthropometric measurements including weight for age and height for age.
Females were slightly more than males (51.5% versus 48.5%, respectively). Infant order in the family was mainly 1st infant (38.5%) followed by 2nd infant (36.3%). Most of the studied infants had 2 children in their families while maximum number of children in the families was 4 children. Most of the studied infants aged >6-12 months old (40.2%) followed by age of 1-6 months old (26.1%) with mean age of 11.5±6.7 months.
Mean income per month of the families was mainly 500-1000 L.E. (71.4%) followed by >1000 L.E. (25.2%) with lesser frequency income <500 L.E. per month. Concerning the educational level of the parents of the studied infants, it was found that mothers and fathers were mainly basically or technically educated (65.8% and 64.9%, respectively) and to a lesser extent highly educated (18.6% and 18.6%, respectively).
Most of the participating mothers were housewives (87%) . On the other hand, fathers of the studied infants were mainly work in professional occupation (63.4%) with 25.7% of the infants had fathers work as employers (official work). The studied families that resided in urban areas were more than the families that resided in rural areas (83% versus 17%, respectively).
On asking mothers about infant feeding, 80.1% of mothers fed their infants breast feeding, 6.4% artificial feeding and 13.5% both types of feeding. It was also found that 65.8% of the mothers started weaning their infants before 6 months of age . Concerning regularity of feeding, only 5.3% of the studied infants had regular meals.
The demographic data of the studied infants with and without feeding problems showed that females were slightly more than males in both groups, but without significant differences. Infant order in the family was mainly 1st infant in the studied infants with and without feeding problems (38.7 and 38%, respectively) followed by 2nd infant (37.7 and 35.8%, respectively). Most of the studied infants in both groups had one or two children in their families. There were no significant differences between both groups regarding infant order in the family and number of children in the families (p>0.05).
Most of the studied infants with feeding problems aged >6-12 months old (48.2%), while this group of age in the studied infants without feeding problems was 37.2%.
There was significant higher mean of age in the studied infants with feeding problems than the studied infants without feeding problems (p<0.0001).
The sociodemographic data of the families of the studied infants with and without feeding problems showed that there were no significant differences between both groups regarding mean income/month, parents educational level, occupation and residence (p>0.05).
There was significant higher frequency of artificial feeding in the studied infants with feeding problems than the studied infants without feeding problems (11.4% versus 4.4%, respectively) (p=0.05). There was significant higher frequency of feeding in irregular times in the studied infants with feeding problems than the studied infants without feeding problems (11.1% versus 4.5%, respectively) (p=0.015).
The most frequent type of feeding problems was eating small amounts (43.4%), followed by eating non-nutritional subjects (33%) and then eating very slow (15.1%).
There was significant lower mean of length and weight in the studied infants with feeding problems than the studied infants without feeding problems (69.71 cm and 8.39 kg versus 74.88 cm and 9.47 kg, respectively) (p<0.0001). The most frequent weight percentile was 50 percentile (36.6%), followed by 25 percentile (26.8%) and then 10 percentile (15.1%). The most frequent weight percentile was 25 percentile (45.4%), followed by 50 percentile (42.1%) and then 10 percentile (8.2%).