Abstract

Infancy is the period of growth and development of a child. Inadequate care, malnutrition and infections in this crucial period led to high neonatal and infant deaths and also high prevalence of morbidities. Undernutrition continues to be an important public health problem in India and can affect many aspects of children's development such as retarding physical and mental development, manifesting itself in different forms in children such as stunting or wasting or underweight. Materials and method: this cross- sectional study was conducted among subjects attending Rural health training centre (RHTC) attached to a tertiary teaching institute from January 2023 to June 2023, using a pre designed questionnaire. Results: In the current study, which included 53% girls and 47% boys, most of whom were between 10 and 12 months old, it was shown that there was a strong relationship between an infant's nutritional health and gender. It was discovered that a higher percentage (82.8%) of infants between the ages of 10 and 12 months were malnourished. Across all age groups of the study subjects, the percentage of malnourished infants was higher than the percentage of infants who were properly nourished, and 67.1% of the malnourished study participants belonged to lower socioeconomic groups, whereas 5.7% were from upper middle class. Conclusion: According to the study, malnutrition affected a large percentage of infants, mostly female infants. The health of these infants, who will be the nation's future citizens, should be our first priority, and their medical requirements should be adequately met

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