INTRODUCTION

Conflicts leads to many humanitarian crisis situations, one being migration of population from a conflict area to a non-conflict area. Similarly, due to the internal conflict situation that existed more than two decades in Somalia, emigration as well as migration within the country took place at different times in varying numbers. Objectives The main objective of the survey was to obtain information of nutritional status and the main influencing factors
Nutritional assessment is an integral part of patient care since nutritional status affects a patients response to illness. Attention to nutritional status is especially important in pediatric patients as they are also undergoing the complex processes of growth and development, which are infl uenced by the genetic makeup of the individual and coex-isting medical illness in addition to nutritional status. Thus, the assessment of nutritional and growth status is an essential part of clinical evalu-ation and care in the pediatric setting.The assessment should allow for the early detection of both nutrient deficiencies and excesses. There is no single nutrition measure-ment that is best; therefore, a combination of dif-ferent measures is required. Growth is an important indicator of health and nutritional sta-tus of a child, and a variety of growth charts are currently available to help with the assessment of growth. These include the 2000 Centers for Dis-ease Control and Prevention (CDC) growth charts that represent the US population and the 2006 World Health Organization (WHO) growth charts. Each growth measurement performed needs to be accurate and obtained at regular intervals. These longitudinal data will help identify at-risk patients and will allow the monitoring of a patients clini-cal response to nutritional therapy.During infancy, childhood, and adolescence, many changes in growth and body composition occur. Therefore, clinicians must understand nor-mal growth to recognize abnormal patterns. Cli-nicians also need to recognize the nutritional changes that occur with acute and chronic disease. With the epidemic of pediatric obesity, the proper identifi cation of the overweight or obese patient is also important. A brief nutritional screen-ing assessment may be used to identify patients in need of an in-depth assessment. A typical nutri-tional screening includes a brief medical and dietary history (including feeding ability), anthro-pometric measurements (eg, weight, stature), and possibly laboratory data. A full nutritional assess-ment includes more detailed medical and dietary histories (including a measure of dietary intake), a complete physical examination, further anthro-pometric and body composition measurements, sexual and skeletal maturation, laboratory data, and the estimation of nutritional requirements. A clinicians global assessment of the child based on these objective data in addition to his or her clinical judgment is also important to consider in determining nutritional status.

the fight against child and maternal undernutrition requires a two-fold approach, with the implementation and the scaling up of direct nutrition interventions combined with a multisectoral preventive approach. These interventions are to be combined with long-term multi-sectoral interventions that act on the determinants of undernutrition like inadequate income, agricultural productivity, water supply and gender inequality. The promotion of nutritionally orientated interventions is expected to achieve greater results, especially if interventions from different sectors include an indicator of undernutrition to judge overall progress. Best practice on national level consists of: Giving a high profile to nutrition and hunger; the commitment of the countrys government and the political impetus to fight hunger and undernutrition are common to all studied countries. Adopting a multi-sectoral approach, involving a broad range of stakeholders and requiring

coherence and coordination among sectors. Encouraging civil society ownership and boosting participation. Adopting a multi-phase approach including both short and long term effective interventions; Ensuring institutionalised coordination. Ensuring financial commitment and long-term investment from the government and the donors.