Background: Preschool children undergo rapid growth & development and as such their nutritional status is considered to be one of the most important areas of concern. Nutrition plays a key role in physical and mental development of children as well as prevention of disease or illness. In modern life, excessive use of junk foods in daily life, especially among children leads to various illnesses and poor health status. Objectives: 1. To assess the level of knowledge of parents regarding nutrition of under 6 years children. 2. To determine the practices of parents regarding food habits of children. Methodology: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in20 Anganwadi Centres (AWCs) of urban slums of Jandli block of Ambala City, Haryana, in January-February 2018. Convenient sampling technique was used and 198 parents/guardians of children of age under six (excluding parents of below 8 months children), who accompanied the children to the AWCs were involved in face to face interview using a structured questionnaire. Results: Study shows that most of the children were in the age group of 28-37 months. The sex ratio of the children was almost equal. Most of the mothers were home-makers. The monthly income of the families ranged between INR.10,110 to INR.40,430. More than half of the parents (52.5%) had their family income ranged between INR20,210 to 40,429. Study shows that 45.7% families were vegetarian and 31.8% children had 2-3 meals a day. Almost 40% children liked fruits and 33.7% were fond of spicy things. Furthermore, study showed that 67.5% children were consuming milk and out of them 36% children were in regular habit of milk consumption. The study also showed that the association between the education of mothers with nutrition and malnutrition was highly significant. Conclusion: Based on the findings it could be concluded that majority of the respondents were in the age group of 2-4 years, with equal number of male and female children. To prevent or reduce the problem of malnutrition, various nutrition intervention programmes have been introduced, from time to time in India. Changes need to be made in the understanding and utilization of the services. More nutritious food material should be provided in AWCs.
