author(s)
N Kalaikuruselvi and C Hema

abstract
Nutrition is the important for survival, Growth and Development. Well-Nourished children studied better in school, grow into healthy adults and better start in their life. Global Hunger Index 2024; India's child wasting rate was 18.7%, the highest in the report. India's GHI score was 27.3, which is considered "serious". The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World, 2023; 74% of India's population could not afford a healthy diet, and 39% fell short of a nutrient-adequate one. Child-to-child approach influenced the national curriculum and practice of health education to some degree. Based on researcher’s experience education on balanced diet among children is important to develop awareness on the necessity of balanced diet and their nutritional problems. Pre-experimental study to assess the effectiveness of child-to-child approach on balanced diet among the school children in Kamaraj Higher secondary School at Nalumavadi, Thoothukudi District, Tamil Nadu. Quantitative approach was used in this study and pre-experimental one group pre-test and post-test research design was applied. The study sample age group was respectively 12 and 14 years, selected by convenience sampling technique consist of 60 samples were 30 elder (14 years) and younger (12 years) children who full fill the inclusion criteria. The knowledge was measured by 50 self-structured questionnaires. The younger children mean post-test knowledge score was 37% higher than the mean pre-test score was 17% the obtained ‘t’ value was statistically significant at 0.05 levels. It shows child-to-child approach was effective.