Authors: Jacqueline Macharia, Dorcus Mbithe, Harun Kimani, Peter Chege.
The children successfully treated for acute malnutrition continue to be at risk of illnesses, relapse and sometimes death in the subsequent year after treatment. This vulnerable population could adopt appropriate feeding practices to prevent relapse with improved linear growth within the critical age of up to 23 months. Insufficient scientific documentation of these children’s state of nutrition since their discharge, from malnutrition treatment program, guided this study. Cross section analytical design was used among children exited from the supplementary feeding program who were cured and within the age group 6 to 23 months. Children continuing in the program were excluded from the study. Purposive sampling was used to sample Garbatulla sub-county in Isiolo and the children who fit the criteria from the program registers. Relationships between variables were determined using Chi-square, Pearson Correlation and Odds ratio at 0.05 level of significance. Wasting (14.7%), stunting (33.8%) and underweight (19.1%) indicated under-nutrition by Z-scores. Attaining minimum meal frequency and minimum acceptable diet was a challenge among the non-breastfed and older children. Individual dietary diversity (r=0.47; p=0.045), meal frequency (r=0.53; p=0.038) and attaining minimum acceptable diet (χ2=45.71; p=<0.001) exhibited significant relationships with wasting. Children still relapse after successful treatment of acute malnutrition after discharge. Feeding practices adopted after discharge were poor and below the World Health Organization guidelines as depicted by failure to attain the minimum acceptable diet. As a result, some children were wasted. This was attributed to overreliance on the food aid. The study recommends that follow-up schedules of the children below 2 years after nutrition program treatment be documented to enhance timely identification of possible relapse cases.
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