Context: India is home to the greatest population of severely malnourished children in the world. Aims: To evaluate the clinico-epidemiological profile and co-morbidities of SAM children. To identify sociodemographic risk factors of SAM. Settings and Design: Prospective hospital based case study. Methods and Material: Study conducted from 1st Nov 2017 to 30th April 2019 included were children less than 5 years admitted to indoor pediatric ward and satisfying the WHO definition of SAM. Statistical analysis used: Data was entered in Microsoft excel sheet and SPSS software version 16 for windows was used for analysis. Results: Mean age of admitted children was 15.21±8.54 months. Male: female ratio was 1:1.22. Most common associated infections were acute respiratory tract infections (35.27%), and diarrhoea (31.75%). Anemia was an important co-morbidity (83.52%). Hypokalemia was the most common metabolic disturbance noted Mean duration of exclusive breast feeding was 3.1± 1.8 months. Most commonly used supplementary food was over diluted cow milk (43.67%). Conclusion: The findings of this study confirm the association of severe acute malnutrition with in appropriate infant and young child feeding practices. The problem of SAM is multidimensional (rural background, low socioeconomic status, maternal illiteracy, incomplete immunization etc) and tertiary care centres and NRC provide life-saving care for children.

Keywords: SAM; WHO; Anemia; Tertiary Care Centre.