Determinants Of Acute Malnutrition Among Under-five Years Children
[A CASE STUDY OF ILLELA LOCAL GOVERNMENT SOKOTO STATE, NIGERIA]

CHAPTER FIVE
DISCUSSION, SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 DISCUSSION
Based on the findings from this study, more than half of the under-five children in the study were females (51%) and majority were aged 37-59 months (54.8%) and followed by those aged 13-36 months (42.3%) respectively. Half of the children (50%) were of birth order 1-2 with a few in the birth order of 3-4 (25%) and 5 or more order (25%) respectively. Most of the children were of birth intervals equal or less than two years (44.2%). There were also quite a large number of children born in the birth interval of 3-4 years (41.3%).  The delivery of majority of children within a birth interval of two years implies that child feeding brings about weaning off breast milk early to give room for the mother to take care of a possible new pregnancy. Based on the above results, it is not by surprise that malnutrition of children under-five years has persisted in Araba and Kalmalo districts since short breast feeding intervals subjects the child to early weaning.
On the age of the mother at birth, majority of the children had their mothers aged 30-39 years (44.4%) while quite a significant proportion was also from children whose mothers at birth were aged 20-29 years (32.7%). Few of the children were from mothers aged less than 20 years (15.4%) and 40-49 years (11.5%) at birth respectively.
The percentage distribution of under-five children according to the education level of the mother indicates that majority of the mothers had received primary level education (73.1%) and quite a few had never been to school (15.4%).  Findings further reveal that only 11.5% of the children had mothers with secondary education and above.  The level  of education  could impact on  child care as many of the mothers  may lack  the  basic skills and knowledge to look after  their  children  by offering  nutritious feeding. Many  of such mothers still  believe in traditional way of feeding and would ignore the recommended child feeding and health practices  that encourages exclusive breast feeding for up to  at least  six months as well as provision of nutrition supplements and balanced diet.
The distribution of under-five children according to the marital status of their mother indicates that majority of the children were born to mothers who were married/cohabiting (66.3%). Quite a big number of the under five children were born to never married/separated mothers (33.7%).  There was quite a high number of children  born to  single mothers  which could have  serious implications  on  under-five  child  malnutrition since the kind of care that the child receives from the single parent may be compromised  compared to those  with  both parents who will always give their children  undivided attention and care.  Besides single mothers may not have advantage of receiving financial support from the father of the child especially in proper feeding. The cultural practices of our people could also be a major factor in this regard.
The findings also indicate that majority of the under-five children had their mothers who were peasant farmers (50%) as their occupation. Children whose mothers were doing business or civil servants were also significantly many (30.8%) as well as the pastoralists (13.4%).  Followed by those whose mothers were doing business or self employed (17.3%). Most of the mothers who did business lived nearer to the trading centres in Araba and Kalmalo districts.  There were also a few children whose mothers did handcrafts/artisans as their occupation (5.8%).