Caregivers perceptions on factors contributing to their children’s malnutrition

Abstract

Complex factors contribute to child malnutrition. These include various factors for example stress, trauma, cognitive abilities and education, poverty, environmental and cultural practices. Caregivers’ situations and perceptions regarding these factors are of utmost importance in child malnutrition. Lesotho has a high incidence of malnourished children irrespective of various interventions to address the problem. The research question that the researcher wanted to answer is: What are caregivers’ perceptions on factors contributing to their children’s malnutrition? This was the question as caregivers’ environments and perceptions influence child malnutrition and they are the ones that accompany the children to the hospital where this research was done. The research goal was to get an understanding of caregivers’ perceptions on factors contributing to malnutrition. In order to reach the goal. the objectives were: To explore the factors contributing to malnutrition; to describe the factors contributing to malnutrition and to give recommendations to social workers and the multi-disciplinary team in order to address the factors contributing to malnutrition as preventative measures.