Assessment and development of nutrient-rich complementary food for unprivileged families in Vaishali district of Bihar

Malnutrition is responsible, directly, or indirectly, for over half of all childhood deaths. Infants and young children are at increased risk of malnutrition from six months of age onwards, when breast milk alone is no longer sufficient to meet all nutritional requirements and complementary feeding needs to be started. Appropriate complementary feeding should start from the age of six months with continued breastfeeding up to two years or beyond. Complementary foods were developed with appropriate proportions of wheat, maize, ragi and moong after processing to reduce the anti-nutritional factors and increased digestibility with enhanced shelf life. Children from 6 months to 23 months were selected, their weight and height were measured, and a list of malnourished children was prepared on the basis of the growth monitoring scale of WHO guidelines. The anthropometric measurements such as weight and height of all the children’s age group has increased after all feeding trials with a weight gain of 23.75 percent, 23.07 percent 23.74 percent and height increase 4.46 percent, 3.6 percent, 5.61 percent after completion of all four-feeding trial in the age group of 6- 11-month, 12-17 month and 18-24 months which is a marked increased/changes in weight and height. Thus, this complementary food is the most affordable and nutrient- rich food that is suitable for parents and children. It is concluded that ready-to- mix complementary food will be extremely rich in nutrients, which will be helpful to improve the health of children.