Nutrient composition of complementary foods for children in Temeke district
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Date
2009
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Sokoine University of Agriculture
Abstract
The provision of nutrient-dense complementary foods is essential to ensure an
infant's nutrient requirements are met. Yet often, relative to recommendations,
traditional complementary foods have low levels of nutrients, suggesting a need, for
improvement to ensure dietary adequacy. In this study, nutrient composition of
locally available dishes used as complementary foods for children aged 6-24 months
was determined so as to provide suitable recommendations that will ensure
sustainable improvement of the overall nutritional adequacy of complementary foods
and well being of children in Tanzania. Data were collected from 100 interviewed
caregivers using structured questionnaires and through laboratory analysis of 100
different complementary foods. Standard AOAC methods were used to determine
nutrient composition. The findings show that, maize porridge (71%), composite flour
porridge (55%) and mashed polatoes/mashed bananas (41%) are the main
complementary foods prepared for young children in the study area. The proximate
composition data showed that maize porridge provided energy of 282.59±59.54
Kcal/100g, composite flour porridge provided 319.13±61.31 Kcal/100g and mashed
potato provided 243.50±53.56 Kcal/lOOg dry matter. The micronutrient composition
data showed that the phosphorous, copper, iron and zinc content in mg/100g dry
matter were 183.09±74.52, 0.37±0.12, 5.14±2.24, and 0.51±0.22 g for composite
Hour porridge, and 164.00±l06.25, 0.32±0.13, 4.15±1.68 and 0.42±0.17 for mashed
potato/mashed banana; whereas 59.33±42.21, 0.28±0.19, 2.65±1.56 and 0.27±0.16
were contained in maize flour porridge. A comparison on what the foods could
provide and what is the recommended daily dietary requirements show that the amount of food consumed are inadequate to meet daily body needs. This is due to
bulkness of the complementary foods. Furthermore, the nutrient composition data
suggest that ensuring a nutritionally adequate complementary feeding diet based on
traditional foods alone is difficult. It could therefore be inferred that mothers need a
guidance to improve traditional foods through combinations with other foods
available to them locally.
Description
Degree of Master of Science in Human Nutrition
Keywords
Nutrient composition, Complementary foods-children, Temeke district