Background:about 55 million children under the age of five suffer from acute malnutrition.Thernproblem is aggravated by acute malnutrition treatment delay due to different barriers.As pointed outrnin Nigeria, about 39% of the population access health facility within one hour walk during the dryrnseason and it decreased to 24% during the wet season(1). Likewise, evidences showed that there wasrna high admission rate for under-five children in Ethiopia. However; evidences in the study areawerernrare to explore the barriers for early treatment.Thus, exploring barriers that delay for acuternmalnutrition caresof under-5 children qualitatively to have detail understanding and evidence-basedrninterventions in a holistic approach are vital.rnObjectives:The objective aimed toexplore the barriersthat delay for acute malnutrition treatmentrnservicesamong parents/caregivers having under-five children from June 01/2020 to August 28/2020.rnMethods:A descriptive qualitative content analysis study with a purposivesampling technique werernemployed to conduct in-depth interview and key informant interview.The data was collected byrntwotrained research assistants from6 parents/caregiversfor in-depth interviewsand16participants forrnthe key informant interview withobservations of the practice.Open code version 4.02 software wasrnused for data managementduring analysis. Coding and codebook were prepared. There werernsimultaneous data collection and initial analysis to grasp what was said and how it was said byrnmemoing; verbatim transcription was undertaken. A qualitative content analysis method was hired tornconduct the analysis process.Result: Parents faced lack of health seeking behaviour: lack ofrnawareness, perceptions of illness behaviour,poverty, workload and traditional beliefs; poorrninfrastructures and difficult geographical setup, the travel distance, inaccessibility of the service,andrnlack of organized treatment facility, COVID-19 pandemic, lack of sustainable interventions, lack ofrnskilled and committed health worker, lack of health worker training, discontinuity of stock supplyandrnlong waiting time to receive the treatment were identified as the barrier for early prevention andrntreatment of under-5 child acute malnutrition. Conclusion:The health education and promotion onrnsocial behaviour change communication (SBCC)had to be strengthened, and monitored along withrnhealth workers skill development and successive trainings. There should be strong and closernmonitoring and evaluation of the impacts of the service provision and inter-sectoral collaborationsrnamong different sectors. It also needs to evaluate the impacts of projects in the area on SBCC forAMTS