Indian J Pediatr 1993; 60 : 429-433

Mother Surrogate and Nutritional Status of Preschool Children

Shashi Jain and Maya Choudhry

Department of Foods and Nutrition, College of Home Sciences, Udaipur

Abstract. The study was conducted on 200 preschool children to find out the effect of mother surrogate on the nutritional status. The nutritional status of children was found to be affected by the time devoted by mother on child care activities, working status of mother and type of family independently and jointly. The children cared by mother had better nutritional status than those children who were cared by servants and any other family member in the absence of mother. It shows that no one can substitute the care provided by the mother. (Indian J Pedlatr 1993; 60 : 429-433).

Key words : Nutritional status; Mother surrogate; Working status.

I n most countries, mothers play cru- cial role in the maintenance of family

life and health in their reproductive and mothering role as well as in their varied role as wives, home makers, workers, in- come earners and those producing, han- dling and preparing food products.

Mother provides the total physical and psychological environment for the child from conception to delivery, and afterwards she continues to provide care and food to assure the biological and emotional need for survival, and healthy growth and development. 1 The rearing of children is a time intensive activity which debilitates, a mother having lim- ited time, when she must manage other house hold activities and also perform market economic function.

The preschool children represent a most vulnerable group, and are com- pletely dependent on the adult for their

Reprint requests : Dr. Maya Choudhry, c/o Cold House, Surajpole Gate, Udaipur-313 001 (Rajasthan).

feeding and other activities. The nutri- tional status of this segment of child population has been found to be affected by the participation of mother in market labour force. In this context the mother surrogate and the quality of care pro- vided by these mother surrogates is an important factor, hence the present study was undertaken to find out the impact of mother surrogate on the nutri- tional status of preschool children.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Two hundred preschool children of Udaipur city were studied to find out the impact of mother surrogates, and time devoted by mother for child care on their nutritional status. The children se- lected were equally representing the working status of mother *(working and non-working) and their family type (joint and nuclear family). The children stud-

"=The working mothers were engaged for 6-8 hrs. in gain- ful employment outside the home.

430 THE INDIAN jOURNAL OF PEDIATRICS 1993; Vol. 60. No. 3

TABLE 1. Nutritional Status of Preschool Children in Relation to Time Devoted by Mother for Child Care, Working Status of Mother and Type of Family

Details Body weight as percentage of standard time devoted on child care***

< 5 hrs./day > 5 hrs./day

Working status**

Working 85.33• 87.06+2.14 (69) (31)

Non-working 80.31 • 94.31 • (26) (74)

Type of family***

Joint

Nuclear

92.67• 91.77+1.46 (32) (68)

79.54• 92.90• (63) (37)

Value of parenthesis are the number of children.

Level of Significance - Type of family : ***(p < 0.01), Time devoted by mother : ***(p < 0.01) Working status of mother : **(p < 0.01), Interactions ***(p < 0.01)

ied were of preschool age, not attending any school, and living at home and were not on breast feeding at the time of study. A prestested proforma was used to collect the information on breast feed- ing practices, supplementary foods given, time devoted by mother for child care, i.e. feeding, bathing, toileting, washing clothes and playing with h im/ her etc. The type of mother surrogate taking care of child in the absence of mother, co-operation of other family members in child care and house hold activities, servants employed for various house hold and child care activities etc. were also recorded. Body measure- ments, i.e. weight, height, arm circum- ference, skin fold thickness were taken

and dietary survey by 24 hours recall method using standardized cupset was conducted to assess the nutritional status of preschool children.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The women's market participation does affect the nutritional status of children. 2. Likewise, Choudhry et al, reported that the nutrional status of children of work- ing mothers of nuclear families was sig- nificantly poor than the children for working mothers of joint families, 2 but the difference in nutritional status of children of nonworking mothers by type of family, was not significant indicating that the type of mother surrogate taking

1993; Vol. 60. No. 3 THE INDIAN JOURNAL OF PEDIATRICS 431

TASLE 2. Mother Surrogate and Nutritional Status of Children

Body measurements (% standard)

(a) (b) (c) Mother Family members Servants (n = 87) (n = 94) (n = 19)

Weight 91.01+1.72 86.42• 80.10• (Stuart & Stevenson) 7

Height 95.19 • 95.13 • 92.53 • (Stuart & Stevenson) 7

Weight/height 100.58 + 1.93 94.64 • 1.23 91.49 • 1.92 (Stuart & Stevenson) 7

Arm circumference 82.86_+1.07 81.45• 75.24+1.47 (Wolansky) s

Skin fold thickness 87.58+1.64 85.05• 81.67_+3.18 (Quoted by Jelliffe) 9

L~vr od si~,ifi~.cr :

Weight Height Weight/Height Arm circumference Skin fold thickness

v v v

a / sb a/s c b/s c p < 0.01 p < 0.001 p < 0.01 N.S. p < 0.02 p < 0.01 p < 0.02 p < 0.01 N.S. N.S. p < 0.001 p < 0.001 N.S. N.S. N.S.

care of the child in the absence of mother may be playing an important role on the nutritional status of children, therefore, the data was further analysed to find out the impact of mother surrogate on the nutritional status of children.

The results revealed that due to em- ployment the working mothers could devote on an average 5 hrs per day on child as compared to 7 hrs per day by non working mothers. Similarly, the mothers of nuclear families could devote less time for child care than the mothers of joint families. This may be due to the fact that in nuclear families the mothers were-fully responsible for all the house- hold and childcare activities with the as- sistance of servants in some families

(38%), while in joint families these activi- ties were shared among family members. The nutritional status of children who were cared by their mothers for more than 5 h r s / day was better than those who were cared for less than this time. The nutrional status of children of non- working mother and of joint families was better than those of working moth- ers and nuclear families. Analysis of variance revealed that the working status of mother, type of family and time devoted by mother on child care activi- ties is affecting the nutrional status of children jointly, as well as independ- ently. Infact it is the working status of mother and type of family which is af- fecting the time devoted by mother on

432 THE INDIAN JOURNAL OF PEDIATRICS 1993; Vol. 60. No. 3

TaBLF- 3. Mean + SE Values of Energy and Protein Intake of Children by Working Status of Mother and Type of Family

Intake per day Working mother Non-working mother Joint Nuclear Joint Nuclear (a) (b) (c) (d)

Protein (gin) 39.60 30.72 41.10 32.80 + 1.24 + 1.02 + 0.83 • 1.15

Calories (K cal) 1195,0 967.0 1187.0 1025.0 +__ 42.09 • 30.47 • 32.61 • 29.68

Number of children in each group was 50.0 Level of significance - A v/s b - P < 0.001, C v/s d - P < 0.001

child care activities and also the mother surrogate (Table 1).

Further, the analysis of nutritional status of children by mother surrogate revealed that in joint families the child care responsibility was never entrusted to servants, they were cared by family members only, i.e. paternal grand mother /aunt etc. while in nuclear fami- lies 38% children were cared by the ser- vants, when mothers were away from home for work, and remaining mothers left their children either with maternal or patemal grand mothers not living with them. The nutritional status of children cared by servant was poorest than those cared by family member (p < 0.01) and by their mother (p < 0.001). The nutri- tional status of children cared by mother was better than cared by the family members (p < 0.001) (Table 2). This shows that the other care takers can only physically substitute the mother.

Although it may be an argument that in the families of working mothers both the partners are income earners, but in the present study the income of working mothers families was not significantly higher than those of non working moth-

ers. The effect of income, education and occupational status of parents on nutri- tional status of children could not be ob- served. The dietary survey indicated that working mothers stopped breast feeding at an early age, i.e. 9 months as compared to non working mothers at 11 months of age due to employment. Thus the introduction of supplementary food was also started earlier by the children of working mothers. Although the mothers of nuclear families introduced supple- mentary foods earlier to their children, but the energy and protein intake of these children was less (p < 0.001) as compared to the children of joint fami- lies. The intake was also poor by the chil- dren of working mothers than those of the nonworking mothers. The lowest in- take of calories and protein was ob- served by the children of working moth- ers living in nuclear families (p < 0.05) (Table 3), which again emphasises the importance of type of mother surrogate and the time devoted by mother on child care activities.

These results reveal that the employ- ment of mother, time devoted by mother on child care activities and type of family

1993; Vol. 60. No. 3

affect the nutri t ional s tatus of children independen t ly and jointly, hence it can be said that no one can substi tute the care p rov ided by the mother .

REFERENCES

1. WHO. Infant and young child feeding, current issue. WHO 1981 : 8.

2. Choudhry M, Jain S, Saini V. Nutritional status of children of working mothers. Indian Pediatr 1986; 23 : 267-270.

3. Jain S, Choudhry M. Nutritional status of preschool children of working and non-working mothers. Mysore J Agric Sci 1987; 21 : 482-485.

4. Popkin BM. Time allocation of the mother and child nutrition. Ecology of Food and Nutrition 1980; 9 (1) : 1-13.

5. Popkin B M, Solen F S. Income, time,

THE INDIAN JOURNA L OF PEDIATRICS 433

the working mothers and child nutrition. J Trap Pediatr Envt Child Health 1976; 22 : 156-166.

6. Nerlove SB. Women's work load and in- fant feeding practices - A relationship with demographic implications. Ethnol- ogy 1974; 13 : 207-214.

7. Stuart and Stevenson (1959). Values de- rived from Harvard Standard In : Jelliffe DB. The assessment of the nutritional status of the community. Monograph Se- ries.. 53 (W.H.O. Geneva). 1966 : 223-225.

8. Wolanski N. (1964). Quoted by Jelliffe, DB. The assessment of the nutritional status of the community monograph se- ries. 53 (W.H.O. Geneva). 1966 : 228.

9. The assessment of the nutritional status of the community. Monograph Series. Jelliffe, DB. 53 (WHO, Geneva). 1966-227.

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