Open Access Maced J Med Sci. 2021 Jan 07; 9(E):33-38. 33 Scientifc Foundation SPIROSKI, Skopje, Republic of Macedonia Open Access Macedonian Journal of Medical Sciences. 2021 Jan 07; 9(E):33-38. https://doi.org/10.3889/oamjms.2021.5521 eISSN: 1857-9655 Category: E - Public Health Section: Public Health Education and Training Experience of Mother in Taking Care of Children with Stunting at Majene Regency, Indonesia Darwis Darwis 1 *, Rukman Abdullah 2 , Lili Amaliah 3 , Bohari Bohari 3 , Nurdin Rahman 4 1 Department of Nursing, Nani Hasanuddin Health Science Academy, Makassar, Indonesia; 2 Department of Medical Education, Faculty of Medicine, Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa University, Serang, Indonesia; 3 Department of Nutrition, Faculty of Medicine, Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa University, Serang, Indonesia; 4 Department of Nutrition, Faculty of Public Health, Tadulako University, City of Palu, Indonesia Abstract BACKGROUND: Health ofcials have the role and responsibility to provide a promotive, preventive, curative, and rehabilitative action for children who are stunted. However, in fact, the role will be taken over entirely by parents, especially the mother. Therefore, the mother’s experience needs to be explored to know the extent of a mother’s eforts in treating her child who is stunted. AIM: We aimed to explore mother’s experiencein order to know the extent of a mother’s eforts in caring for her child who is stunted. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This research used a qualitative method with a phenomenological approach. Data were collected through deep interviews using a questionnaire that was prepared and then the researcher recorded the process of interview. The sampling technique used was purposive sampling then proceed with snowball sampling. Then, data would be analyzed using the thematic analysis method. RESULTS: Mothers of children who were categorized as stunting did not have clear knowledge about stunting, performed exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months but breastfeeding was not optimal until the children are 2 years of age, complementary feeding was not balanced because it did not contain carbohydrate, protein, and fat sources, families with incomes below the minimum income experience stunted their children. Husband’s support to all participants was very good in overcoming health problems that occur in children, but her husband’s support was very lacking in eforts to prevent children from experiencing stunting, mothers of children who were categorized as stunting had good personal hygiene behaviors in children. CONCLUSION: Health education about stunting with interactive and sustainable extension methods can increase the understanding of parents and families in caring for stunted children. Edited by: Slavica Hristomanova-Mitkovska Citation: Darwis D, Abdullah R, Amaliah L, Bohari B, Rahman N. Experience of Mother in Taking Care of Children with Stunting at Majene Regency, Indonesia. Open Access Maced J Med Sci. 2021 Jan 07; 9(E):33-38. https://doi.org/10.3889/oamjms.2021.5521 Keywords: Stunting; Mother’s experience; Taking care; Posyandu; Family income *Correspondence: Darwis, Nani Hasanuddin Health Science Academy, Makassar, Indonesia. E-mail: darwisdarwis730@gmail.com Received: 20-Oct-2020 Revised: 22-Dec-2020 Accepted: 28-Dec-2020 Copyright: © 2021 Darwis Darwis, Rukman Abdullah, Lili Amaliah, Bohari Bohari, Nurdin Rahman Funding: This research did not receive any fnancial support Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist Open Access: This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0) Introduction Stunting is a chronic condition of malnutrition for a long time in a critical period of growth and development early in life. Stunting is defned as the percentage of children aged 0–59 months who are of height for ages under < −2 standard deviations (moderate and severe stunting) and −3 standard deviations (severe stunting) of the median [1]. Data from the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund in April 2019 from estimates of joint malnutrition show that the prevalence of stunting has decreased since 2000, almost 1:4 of 149 million children under the age of 5 were stunted in 2018, and more than 49 million sufer from malnutrition [2]. Based on the 2015 PSG results, the prevalence of short toddlers in Indonesia is 29%. This fgure has decreased in 2016 to 27.5%. However, the prevalence of short toddlers again increased to 29.6% in 2017. The prevalence of toddlers is very short and short at the age of 0–59 months in Indonesia in 2017 is 9.8% and 19.8%. This condition increased from the previous year, in which the prevalence of very short toddlers was at 8.5% and short toddlers at 19%. The province with the highest prevalence of toddlers who was very short and short at the age of 0–59 months in 2017 was East Nusa Tenggara, while the province with the lowest prevalence was Bali [3]. Riskesdas data in 2018, for children aged 0–23 months the short percentage was 24.5% and very short was 12.6%, and for ages 0–59 months the short percentage was 25.4% and very short was 16.0%. West Sulawesi ranks second nationally [4]. Stunting afects the short and long term. The short-term impact is that motor, cognitive, and verbal development is not optimal and the incidence of illness and death increases so that it will also increase health costs. In the long term, it will have an impact on suboptimal posture in adulthood, an increased risk of disease and obesity, decreased reproductive health, reduced learning ability, and less optimal work productivity [5]. Factors that cause stunting are the provision of undernutrition in children, mothers who are in their adolescents experiencing malnutrition and during pregnancy, lack of optimal latency which afects