Performance of Nutritionally Optimized Millet Porridges in the Rehabilitation of Severely Malnourished Children at Mulago National Referral Hospital, Uganda

Aim: To evaluate the performance of nutritionally optimized millet porridges against F-100 which is a therapeutic food recommended by World Health Organisation for rehabilitating severely malnourished children.

Study Design: Controlled and longitudinal.

Place and Duration of Study: Mulago Hospital, Uganda from January to March 2014.

Methodology: Severely malnourished children in the rehabilitative stage of their treatment were randomly divided into three groups with 26 to moringa group, 25 to pumpkin group and 25 to F-100 group. In addition to the local diet, the experimental groups were fed on fermented millet porridges of either 7% Moringa oleifera leaf powder or 17% Curcubita maxima flesh powder while the control group was fed on F-100. The children were assessed for weight, haemoglobin, serum iron, zinc and vitamin A levels before and after the controlled feeding.

Results: Majority of the children were discharged after six days of rehabilitation. By the sixth day, weight gain/kg body weight for moringa and pumpkin groups were 97 and 79% respectively of weight gain/kg body weight achieved for F-100 group. The mean haemoglobin, serum iron, retinol and zinc levels for all groups remained below normal even at the point of discharge. Moringa group however had their mean haemoglobin and serum retinol levels increased significantly from 9.57±0.28 to 10.19±0.30 g/dl and 0.55±0.04 to 0.69±0.06 µmol/l at P =.02 and =.01 respectively, while pumpkin group had only their serum retinol levels significantly increased from 0.58±0.04 to 0.78±0.09 µmol/l at P =.01. F-100 group had neither their haemoglobin nor the other micronutrients levels significantly increased. By day six, all children in F-100 group were discharged while only 97 and 92% in moringa and pumpkin groups respectively were discharged.

Conclusion: Nutritionally optimized millet porridges performed well compared to F-100. They can therefore be relied upon to avoid relapses in malnutrition conditions after children are discharged.