Weaning Practices and the Prevalence of Under Nutrition in Akatsi District

Abstract

The nutritional deficiencies endured in early childhood can have debilitating mental and physical consequences that are carried to adulthood. In the third world countries a variety of activities such as growth monitoring and evaluation, community based weaning foods feeding programmes and many others have been under taken to prevent and treat malnutrition in childhood. Past studies in Ghana has shown that under nutrition is prevalent among preschool children. The DHMT of Akatsi district analyzed data from child welfare clinic at Akatsi health centre and found that about 25% of the children in the period of weaning seen at the clinic were undernourished. The DHMT has attached importance to under nutrition in the under five age group and would therefore like to know the extent of the problem in the district. This will enable them in collaboration with an NGO (Africare) plan and implement measurable interventions. The study was designed as a descriptive cross- sectional survey. WHO, Rapid Knowledge, Practice and Coverage (RKPC)/30 cluster sampling technique was used. A sample size of 323 was determined based on 0.05 confidence level and precision of 1.96. Twelve mothers were interviewed in each cluster giving a sample size of 360 for the study. Questionnaire administration to mothers with children aged 6-23 months and anthropometric measurement of their children were used to collect data. The anthropometric measurements were compared with the Harvard standard reference based on the percentage of the median. The children were grouped into two age groups :-6-l 1 and 12-23 months. The study results were as follows. Under nutrition both acute and chronic were more prevalent in children aged 12-23 months. Overall, 27-33% were chronically undernourished. Children aged 6-11 months were fed mostly on breast milk and koko (porridge from fermented maize and were cared for by their mothers. Children aged 12-23 months ate the family food which was mainly banku made from com and cassava dough with hot pepper and sometimes with soup and smoked or dried fish. A small proportion of them also ate beans. Diarrhoea and fever was more prevalent among children aged 12-23. There was no significant difference between under nutrition and the mothers’ age, education, occupation, child’s birth order,waster source fuel source, human waste disposal and immunization. Based on the results the following conclusions were drawn. The main causes of under nutrition among children aged 12-23 months are poor child care by older children, lack of protein rich foods and infections. Children aged 6-11 months also do get infections, the koko may not be rich in nutrients, however, they get more of the breast milk which provides them with nutrients some protection. The following recommendations among others, are provided to the DHMT: The DHMT should establish malnutrition clinics at the various health facilities; The DHMT should collaborate with Africare to establish nutrition rehabilitation centre in the district; The DHMT should collaborate with the district assembly and Africare to establish food demonstration farms.