Methods of preparing weaning food and its relation to nutritional statues of infants

Abstract

The weaning period is a vulnerable period of life and especially so when resources are limited.Death and morbidity due to PEM in infancy continue to scourge populations in many parts of the Third World. Dietary surveys in many of these countries reveal low intakes of energy at this critical time of human development. Although some nutritionists have argued that RDA for energy for weanling infants may be set too high, intakes of many infants in the Third World are too far below international RDA to be accounted for by this alone.If energy intakes are low, then protein is used as an energy source and not for growth and tissue repair. With most foods (except very-low-protein staples, such as sweet potato), it is not difficult to satisfy human protein requirements even in infancy if energy needs are met. This is because human beings have very low protein requirements compared with other mammalian species.

Weaning foods with a low energy density contribute to the development of PEM in developing countries.This problem arises because commonly-used weaning foods are prepared from starch-rich cereal flours which, when heated with water, form semi-fluid foods of a thick consistency with low solids content.

As a consequence, more water may be added by mothers preparing weaning foods in order to produce food of a suitable consistency for their infants to consume, thus even further reducing the energy density.

Traditional food processing techniques offer the potential to reduce dietary bulk and, therefore, to promote increased food intake, yet have the major disadvantage of being time consuming.

Germination (including malting) may prove to be an important technique for reducing the dietary bulk of weaning foods, but the risk of aflatoxin contamination should not be overlooked. The addition of fat in the form of peanut butter may help, although this has not been properly studied.

The weaning formulations in the present study are based on commonly consumed, low-cost food materials locally-available. They will be potentially suitable for use as weaning foods, both at the home and commercial levels.

The fact that these formulas are inexpensive, easily available and nutritious could make them effective in solving some of the nutrition problems facing infants and children.Germination is among the simple, easily adaptable technologies for reduction of bulkiness (high viscosity) and increasing shelf-life of cereal and legume based food formulations.

Germination significantly affected the bacterial flora, microbiological safety, viscosity of formulated food products. Germination could be used as simple, household adaptable technologies for reducing bulk and increasing nutrient density of weaning food mixtures.