WEIGHT GAIN ON WHO RECOMMENDED F100 DIET IN CHILDREN UNDER 5 YEARS OF AGE HOSPITALIZED WITH SEVERE ACUTE MALNUTRITION

Abstract

Background; Severe acute malnutrition (SAM) affects approximately 19 million children below five years of age in low and middle income countries, which is defined as low weight for height or mid-upper arm circumference with respect to international standards, or the presence of bipedal edema. These children have a considerably increased risk of dying and it is estimated that malnutrition is the underlying cause of 45% of global deaths in children below 5 years of age. Material and Methods; Patients of severe acute malnutrition having weight for height/length less than -3 SD (Less than 70% of expected) were admitted in hospital nutritional. In stabilization phase, life-threatening problems were identified and treated, metabolic abnormalities were reversed and feeding was begun with F75 diet according to guidelines set by World Health Organization (WHO), the duration of stabilization phase was at least seven days. Patients in rehabilitation phase on F100 formula were included in study. Duration of rehabilitation phase is usually two to six weeks. Initial weight (W1) was measured as soon as the child was admitted and final weight (W2) was measured on 7th day of rehabilitation phase about one hour after a feed after standardizing the scale. Results; Mean age of our study cases was 16.68 ± 10.37 months, 16 (36.4%) were male and 28 (63.6%) were female patients. Mean weight at the time of admission was 4.82 ± 1.70 Kg. Similarly mean height of these study cases was 64.36 ± 11.24 cm. Mean weight at the start of F-100 was 4.85 ± 1.69 kg. Mean weight at the time of discharge was 5.72 ± 1.67 kg. Mean duration of hospital stay was 12.91 ± 6.85 days. Mean weight gain in our study cases was 14.10 ± 5.23 g/kg/day. Adequate weight gain was seen in 36 (81.8%) of our study cases while inadequate gain was seen 8 (18.2%) of our study cases. Conclusion; Use of F-100 milk significantly improved weight gains among our study cases, hence we recommend its use in children with SAM. No adverse side effects were seen in our study population which emphasize towards safety of this product. Keywords; Severe acute malnutrition, Weight gain, F100.