Background: Nutritional issues in early childhood, particularly during the first 1,000 Days of Life (HPK), crucially determine the quality of a child's growth and development. Low maternal nutritional knowledge regarding diverse food intake can severely disrupt toddler development, contributing directly to long-term health consequences such as stunting.
Aims: This study aims to analyze the relationship between mothers' knowledge of food nutrition and the incidence of stunting at UPTD Puskesmas Padang Rubek in 2025, encompassing maternal characteristics, nutritional knowledge levels, and toddler growth status.
Methods: Utilizing an analytical observational design with a cross-sectional approach, this study involved 75 mothers of toddlers selected via accidental sampling. Data were gathered through structured questionnaires to assess maternal knowledge and anthropometric measurements (z-score) to determine stunting status, followed by univariate and bivariate analysis using the Chi-Square test in SPSS.
Result: The demographic profile showed that most respondents had a senior high school education (57%) and were housewives (80%). Univariate findings indicated maternal nutritional knowledge was 36% sufficient, 32% good, and 32% poor, while toddler growth status revealed 79% were not stunted and 21% were stunted. The Chi-Square analysis yielded a P-Value of 0.002, which is significantly lower than the threshold (α = 0.05).
Conclusion: There is a statistically significant relationship between mothers' knowledge of food nutrition and the incidence of stunting at UPTD Puskesmas Padang Rubek. Consequently, community health centers are highly encouraged to intensify periodic educational programs and design engaging health promotional media regarding toddler nutrition.