It has been established that mothers need to know something about child nutrition, growth monitoring, morbidity and mortality, management of diarrhoeal diseases and immunisation. The need for nutrition education has been advocated for by different people in an attempt to reduce under-five morbidity and mortality due to malnutrition. It is important that mothers know about child nutrition, without which the children are susceptible to different diseases and cannot develop or grow well. Particularly they should learn the importance of breast feeding and how to wean babies gradually. They should also learn how to prepare food and feed their babies and children.
Proper nutrition prevents deficiency diseases.
The best way for mothers to know about the growth of their babies and children is through the use of a growth chart. There is a need for mother to be taught the importance of monitoring the growth of their babies, how to read and understand the growth lines on the chart and what they mean. It has been proved that mothers are trainable in this aspect. One other aspect that mothers ought to learn about is common and communicable children's diseases, so that when need arises, they will be able to know what to do or how to handle a patient. The mothers need to know about the prevention and control of such diseases.