الفهرس 
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Abstract
Child growth is internationally recognized as an important public health indicator for monitoring nutritional status and health in populations. On a public health level, analysis of growth patterns allows the identification of the periods of the greatest risk for malnutrition.
Malnutrition in children is amongst the most serious health issues facing children in developing countries. It is an intrinsic indicator of well-being, but it is also associated with morbidity, mortality and impaired childhood development.
Objectives of the study
• To calculate the percentage of different pattern of growth among the studied children.
• To identify factors associated with growth pattern of children aged one year e.g. socioeconomic, feeding pattern and infectious diseases.
Subjects and methods
The Target population was caregivers of children aged one year attending family health center in a rural area (Abis 2). A total of 389 children were taken during compulsory vaccination sessions during the fieldwork (4 months duration).
Data was collected through an interview using a pre-designed structured questionnaire. It covered the following items:
- Socio demographic data as education, occupation of parents and family size.
- Data related to mothers as place of delivery and history of pregnancy.
- Data related to infants as sex, birth order, birth interval and birth weight.
- Data related to infants’ nutrition and feeding, breast feeding Problems and complementary feeding Problems.
- Measurements taken were: weight measurements and Hb g/dl.
- Drawing growth pattern of children in specific sheet of growth curve.
Results
Socio demographic characteristics and Mothers’ variables.
• About 42.4% of the mothers had secondary education, and 96.9% were house wives, while 40.1% of the fathers had basic education and 41.4% of fathers work as manual workers.
• The family size ranged from 3-9 persons, with a mean of 4.31±1.14.
• The majority of mothers 67.9% had a normal history of pregnancy while 32.1% of them had a risky pregnancy of which 54.4% were suffering from anemia, followed by hypertension 25.6%.
Infants’ variables and nutritional variables.
• There were 51.9% males and 48.1% females in the studied sample. About 23.4% of infants had high birth weight, the mean birth weight was 3.26 ± 0.54, while the mean weight of infants at 1 year was 9.80 ± 1.16.
• The percentage of mothers who had an optimal birth interval (from 2 –< 3 years) reached only 12.6%.
• The majority of Infants had no congenital anomalies 97.7%, while the most common congenital anomaly was congenital heart diseases.
• More than half (57.3%) of infants had exclusive breast feeding and 11.3% had both breast feeding and artificial feeding, and the majority started breast feeding more than one hour of delivery 76.9%.
• Less than half of the infants (44.7 %) started complementary feeding from 5 to 6 m with a mean of 6.35 ± 1.71 m.
• About 84.6% of infants had abnormal hemoglobin level with a mean Hb concentration of 9.60 ± 1.20 g/dl.
Growth patterns and Weight Percentile curves.
• About less than quarters (21.9%) of infants at 1st 6 months of life had abnormal growth curves, while infants at 2nd 6 months about 35.5% had abnormal growth curves. The majority of abnormal growth curves were fast rising growth curve of infants at 1st year of life.
• Infants with overweight (>97th percentile) were more encountered during the period from 6 months to 1 year (2.3%) and there was no statistical significance association between weight percentile curves (weight for age) and gender, and also no statistical significance association between growth pattern and gender.
Relation between Growth pattern and Socio demographic data and mothers’ variables in 1st year of life.
• There was only a statistically significant association between the growth pattern and maternal occupation in 1st 6 months of life.
• There was no statistically significant association between the growth pattern and the following variables: paternal education, father occupation, family size, place of delivery, pregnancy outcome, history of pregnancy, presence of chronic diseases in mothers and current pregnancy.
Relation between Growth pattern and infants’ variables and infants’ nutritional variables in 1st year of age.
• There was a statistically significant association between the growth pattern and the following infants’ variables: weight at 1 year and presence of congenital anomalies in the period between 0 to 6 months, while from 6 months to 1 year it was significantly related with birth interval. As regards nutritional variables there was statistically significant association between growth pattern and feeding problem related to the infant and stopping of breast feeding in 1st 6 months. In 2nd 6 months there is significant relation with problems in complementary feeding and hemoglobin level.
• There was no statistically significant association between growth pattern and sex, birth order, birth weight, congenital anomalies, type of feeding in the 1st 6 months and initiation of breast feeding.
Relation between Weight Percentile curves and Socio demographic data and mothers’ variables in 1st year of life.
• There was no statistically significant association between the weight percentile curves and socio demographic data and mothers’ variables in 1st year of life.
Relation between Weight Percentile curves and infants’ variables and infants’ nutritional variables in 1st year of age.
• There was a statistically significant association between the weight percentile curves and the following infants’ variables: birth weight, weight at 1 year, type of feeding in the 1st 6 m, feeding problem related to the infant and stopping of breast feeding in 1st 6 months of life. While in the 2nd 6 months there was a statistically significant association with only birth interval