Food Choices, Children Immune System and Health Safety in Yakurr Local Government Area of Cross River State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study examines food choices, children immune system and health safety in Yakurr Local Government Area of Cross River State, Nigeria. Ex-post facto research design was adopted for the study. The study covers 13 council wards, and a total of 285 schools with pupils' population of 1388 were sampled for the study (5% of the population of the schools was used), 15 schools were used in all and 50 pupils were drown from each school. Two hypotheses were formulated for the study. The instrument used for data collection was a well-structured questionnaire. Pearson Product Moment Correlation Co­ efficient was used to test the hypotheses. The findings revealed that there is a relationship between food choices and children immune system. It was also revealed that there is a relationship between picky eating and children health. Based on the findings of this study, it was recommended that parents and care-givers should not give the same-food on daily basis, rather introduce new food, engage children in other conversation or storytelling and make meals together as a family and provide enjoyable opportunity.