الفهرس 
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Abstract
The first 1000 days of life span from day of conception till the child attends two years of age, is considered the most important development phase. Children during early years of age go through rapid growth and development that is greatly influenced by various ecological factors of which family planning variables are of prime importance. These variables include; maternal age, inter-birth interval, birth order and number of previous pregnancies.
The relation between the family planning variables and the pattern of growth and development of children was previously explored in Badawy study(1983). However, families have drastically changed over the past three decades almost at every level, in terms of the family formation patterns, household structure, family’s perception and behaviors, child well-being, fertility rates, the rates of marriages and divorces. Therefore, a temporal comparative study becomes, not only required but also needful to measure to what extent the family planning variables have been impacted, and the growth and development of children, in return.
The current study aimed to assess the pattern of growth and development of children at two years of age, to portray the current profile of family planning variables and to compare the results of the current research with a previous comparable study (Badawy study 1983). To accomplish these aims a cross sectional survey was conducted. All Alexandria districts were represented where two family health centers were selected from each district as an equal allocation using the simple random method. Two-years-old 128 children attending pediatric clinic at family health centers for any preventive or curative service as well as their mothers were involved in the study. The mothers of these children were interviewed so as to obtain the needed information about the children social and biological background. Children growth and development were then assessed, data were statistically analysed and the results of this study were presented in six sections. They are as follow:
Section 1: Family characteristics
• The mean age of mothers was 29.59± 4.88 years where more than four fifths of them (85.2%) aged between 20 and 35 years.
• Nearly three quarters (74.2%) of studied children lived in urban areas.
• The majority of mothers (93.7%) and fathers (92.2%) were educated.
• The majority of mothers (86.7%) did not work. On the other hand, the majority of fathers (97.7%) worked and among them, about one quarter (25.6%) were professional workers while 37.6% were skilled and 36.8% were manual workers.
• More than four fifths (84.4%) of studied children lived in nuclear families. The mean crowding index was 1.958 ± 0.786 with a range from one to five persons per room.