The Effect of Feeding Patterns and History of Infectious Diseases on the Incidence of Stunting in Children Under Five in the Province of East Nusa Tenggara

BACKGROUND- The prevalence of stunting of children under five years old (toddlers) in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) reached 40.3 percent, the highest when compared to other provinces in Indonesia. This figure is above the National stunting prevalence of 29.6 percent. The prevalence of stunting in NTT consists of infants with a very short category of 18 percent and a short category of 22.3 percent. The purpose of the study was to analyze the influence of feeding patterns and a history of infectious diseases on stunting. METHOD- This type of research is quantitative with a case-control study design, located in Kupang Regency and South Central Timor Regency in 2020. The sample of this study was 150 children under five consisting of 75 children under five who were stunted and 75 children under five were not stunted as a control and a simple random sample development technique. The method of collecting data is through measuring the height and weight of children under five and conducting interviews with parents of toddlers using a questionnaire and analyzing it by Chi-Square. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION- The results showed that there was an influence of food feeding patterns (pattern of menu preparation, food processing, food presentation, and how to feed) and a history of infectious diseases (Ari and diarrhea) on the incidence of Stunting in children under five in East Nusa Tenggara province.