Feeding Practices and Growth Pattern are better in South than North India.

Background: Almost half of the preschool children are stunted and nearly 60 million children are underweight in India (IIPS & ORG Macro, 2006). The present study investigates the role of child feeding practices and its correlation with child nutritional indicators among Indian children based on data collected during 2005-2006 (NFHS-3, INDIA) using Ruel and Menon’s method with some modification in Indian context on children of 3-36 months of age. Methodology and findings: Data collected on breastfeeding, and complimentary feeding practices were used to construct age specific child feeding index with explanatory variables like, wealth index, birth order, mother’s educational status, and religion using binary and multivariate analysis. Conclusion: There are wide diversity in feeding practices among Indian children by different regions and SES. The proportion of children with better feeding practices are having better growth pattern. The richer, male children from southern region with high educated mothers are less likely to be stunted than their counterpart. There is wide diversity in giving animal products and meal frequencies across different age group. The stunting is strongly associated with child feeding indices especially in children of 6-9 months. The stunting is very high among children with poor feeding practices