AN ANALYTICAL STUDY OF SUPPLEMENTARY FOOD PROVISION (PMT) ON THE INCREASE IN WEIGHT IN CHILDREN STUNTING IN TODDLERS AT THE POSBINDU IN PAGERWOJO VILLAGE

Abstract

Stunting is a condition of chronic growth failure caused by long-term nutritional deficiency that tends to result in low body weight in children, and in Sidoarjo Regency the stunting rate was recorded to have risen from 14.8% in 2021 to 16.1% in 2022, prompting this study to determine the effect of supplementary feeding (PMT) on weight gain among stunted toddlers at Posbindu Pagerwojo Village, using a pre-experimental design with a one group pre-test post-test approach involving 30 stunted toddlers aged 1–3.5 years selected through total sampling, consisting of 16 boys (53.3%) and 14 girls (46.7%), who received supplementary feeding regularly for approximately two months (April–May 2026) and had their body weight measured before and after the intervention, which was then analyzed using the Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test since the data were not normally distributed, with results showing that the mean body weight increased from 8.84 kg (SD = 0.500) before the intervention to 9.88 kg (SD = 0.601) afterward, with 28 of the 30 children (93.3%) experiencing weight gain and the statistical test yielding a Z value of -3.668 with a significance level of 0.000 (p < 0.05), indicating that supplementary feeding effectively supported catch-up growth in stunted children through consistent delivery, monitoring by community health cadres, and parental compliance, leading to the conclusion that regularly administered and well-monitored supplementary feeding is an effective nutritional intervention for improving the nutritional status of stunted children.