Aaiza Tahreem ¹ Allah Rakha ^2* Rimsha Anwar ² Roshina Rabail ² Cristina Maria Maerescu ^3* Claudia Terezia Socol ³ Florin Leontin Criste ³ Gholamreza Abdi ⁴ Rana Muhammad Aadil ^2*

• ¹ National Institute of Food Science and Technology, Faculty of Food, Nutrition and Home Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan
• ² National Institute of Food Science and Technology, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan, Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan
• ³ University of Oradea, 410087 Oradea, Romania, Oradea, Romania
• ⁴ Department of Biotechnology, Persian Gulf Research Institute, Persian Gulf University, Bushehr, Iran, Bushehr, Iran

Therefore, this cross-sectional study of 100 mother-child pairs in district Gujranwala aimed to assess maternal nutritional literacy (MNL) and maternal feeding practices (MFP) and their ultimate impacts on child growth. A researcher administered questionnaire that was the combination of WHO model questionnaires and FAO Nutrition-related KAP model questionnaires was used to collect the data from mothers while and anthropometric measurements of children were taken by following the standard methods. Results showed that 57% of mothers had average nutritional knowledge and feeding practices were not satisfactory. Only 12% of mothers-initiated breastfeeding within the first hour of birth, 7% of infants were exclusively breastfed, while 27.27% continued to be breastfed beyond 1 year. Complementary foods were timely introduced to 53% of infants, 47% received minimum meal frequency and 34% met the minimum dietary diversity criteria. Additionally, the consumption of unhealthy foods, sugar-sweetened beverages, and zero consumption of fruits and vegetables was practiced by 71%, 23%, and 27% of infants and young children, respectively. Prevalence of stunting, wasting, Deleted: The data was collected from mothers by researcher-32 administered questionnaire 33 underweight and overweight was 19%, 9%, 12%, and 12%, respectively. A non-significant association was observed between MNL and MFP with growth outcomes with a few exceptions.The odds of being wasted (β = 1.903, OR = 6.706, p < 0.05) and underweight (β = 1.732, OR = 5.654, p < 0.05) are higher among children who had vaginal birth. Higher odds of being stunted (β = 2.173, OR = 8.788, p < 0.05) were observed among those whose mothers had middle school education compared to those having higher education. Overall results indicated a dire need not only to create nutritional awareness among mothers in Gujranwala but also to provide a support system for mothers to help them implement standard feeding practices.Formatted: English (US) Deleted: hinders infants from achieving their optimal 66 developmental potential by delaying their cognitive development.