Stunting is a health problem that has a long-term impact on children's future. It is necessary to intervene in stunting infants up to 2years old to catch up with the next period of child development. Sensitive nutrition intervention is an act to reduce indirect nutritional problems, such as environmental factors. This study aimed to determine environmental factors that may affect infants diagnosed with stunting 3years ago.

The study was carried out from June to October 2021 in Salatiga City, Central Java, Indonesia, by using an observational cross-sectional research design. Of 251 stunted toddlers from six public health centers (confirmed data in 2018), 25 toddlers were randomly selected from each public center for stunting re-assessment in 2021. Subject recruitment follows inclusion criteria (e.g., toddlers should be under five years old, and mother and her baby/toddler occupy the same house in a permanent address, particularly from birth to five years old) and exclusion criteria (e.g., toddlers over five years old, the mother lives separately from her baby/toddler, the mother and her baby/toddlers do not have a permanent address, or the mother is passed away). Furthermore, the medical history of toddlers, maternal interview, household environment conditions, and coliform detection in drinking water were conducted and recorded. Logistic regression was performed to analyze the relationship between stunting conditions and environmental variables.

The evaluation of the stunting status of children under five years old in 2021 was dominated by stunted conditions (22%) with a z score of −3 to<−2 standard deviations (SD), followed by severely stunted conditions (8%) with a z score of<−3 SD. The study demonstrated that environmental factors did not contribute to the stunting condition. However, boiled water was considered a risk factor for stunting conditions. Furthermore, our analysis showed that exclusive breastfeeding correlated with stunting condition and it offered a protection factor for stunting in toddlers.