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Abstract
Stunting remains common among preschoolers in Enugu State and is a recognised marker of risk for poor early learning. Nutrition education for caregivers and teachers is a scalable complement to school feeding, yet few Enugu studies have tested whether such education changes early cognitive scores rather than knowledge or growth alone. This cluster quasi-experiment assigned 24 public early childhood care and education centres in urban and rural Enugu local government areas to a 12-week bilingual (English, Igbo) nutrition-education package or to usual care. Twelve centres (174 children aged 36–59 months) received the package covering local complementary foods, meal frequency, hygiene and classroom snack practice. Twelve centres (174 children) continued usual care. Outcomes were caregiver knowledge and recommended practices, child dietary diversity, WHO anthropometric z-scores and the IDELA composite. Linear mixed models used centre as a random effect. The intervention arm had higher posttest knowledge, dietary diversity and IDELA composite scores after pretest and socioeconomic covariates. Indirect effects through knowledge and dietary diversity accounted for 51.4% of the cognitive gain. The cognitive advantage was larger among children who were stunted at baseline and was present in both urban and rural centres. Nutrition education can improve early cognitive scores in Enugu ECCE settings when it is bilingual, food-based and linked to classroom practice.