Feeding practices and malnutrition at the Princess Marie Louise Children’s hospital, Accra: what has changed after 80 years?

Table 3 Major weaning foods eaten by malnourished and well-nourished children attending PML Children’s Hospital in Accra, Ghana

Type of weaning food	Nutritional status of child
	Malnourished	Well-nourished		Food composition per 100 g
	N = 169	N = 171		Food composition per 100 g
	n, %¹	n, %¹	p-value	Water (g)	Energy (kcal)	Protein (g)	Iron (mg)	Vitamin A² (IU)
Maize gruel with sugar	66 (39.1)	43 (25.1)	0.006	90.50	37.89	0.57	0.58	NA
Maize gruel with sugar and milk	62 (36.7)	50 (29.2)	0.144	88.19	51.35	1.44	0.52	12.73
Solids	30 (17.8)	65 (38.0)	<0.001
Rice with tomato stew				71.00	116.88	2.06	0.59	20.00
“Banku” with okro stew				78.20	86.67	2.23	3.67	NA
“Fufu” with palmnut soup				70.00	263.70	1.95	2.47	380.00
Beans with palmoil, cassava grit and plantain				50.11	226.15	3.87	1.39	418.63
Yam with “kontomire” stew				70.00	129.63	2.12	0.65	369.14
Cerelac® (dry mixture)	24 (14.2)	41 (24.0)	0.022	2.50	411.00	15.50	7.50	309.00
Weanimix (“Tom Brown”-dry mixture)	16 (9.5)	14 (8.2)	0.677	7.30	374.00	9.10	7.40	NA
“Mpotompoto”	7 (4.1)	13 (7.6)	0.175	78.50	97.14	0.82	1.06	146.90
Beverage	3 (1.8)	8 (4.7)	0.130
Milo®				87.00	29.17	1.34	0.77	13.00
Orange juice				86.20	53.00	0.20	0.11	NA
Soy milk				89.40	40.00	2.80	0.40	NA
“Iced kenkey”	4 (2.4)	3 (1.8)	0.691	87.50	48.91	1.23	0.96	9.35

¹Percentages may add up to >100 since multiple answers apply; ²Retinol equivalent; NA = values not available; Weanimix (‘Tom Brown”) = cereal/legume blend; “Mpotompoto” = traditional food prepared from tubers such as yam, cocoyam or potatoes with vegetables, fish and palm-oil; Beverage = Chocolate drink, soy milk or fruit juice; “Iced kenkey” = fermented cooked maize meal which is mashed, diluted with water and has sugar added to it; “Fufu” = Pounded yam, cocoyam, plantain and/or cassava; “Banku” = cooked maize ball made of fermented maize powder; “Kontomire” = a stew of cocoyam leaves in palm-oil base tomato sauce resembling spinach stew; Reference values were from Microdiet version 3.1 [41], Eyeson and Ankrah, 1975 [42] and ESHA [43]

ISSN: 2055-0928