Preparing new and healthy weaning blends and its relation to nutritional status of infants

Low nutrient density in weaning foods is the major cause of under-nutrition among infants and young children in developing countries. The aim of these study preparing weaning blends were formulated from locally-available materials in Egypt (wheat, rice, chickpea, dried carrots and Powder milk). Also, the current intervention study was conducted on 102 infant who received weaning food consist of cereals (wheat, rice), legumes (chickpea). In comparison to 100 infants as a control group were not received the weaning food.It was noticed that the iron contents in all blendswere high with values of 7.8 and 8.2 mg/100 g. [their iron content covered about 66% of the recommended daily requirement of infant consuming 50gm of prepared blend.The mean values of infants’ weight were statistically significantly higher at 6, 9, and 12 months of age in the intervention group (8.30 ±0.65, 9.96±0.88, 10.84±0.93 Kgm ) as compared to the control group (6.98 ± 0.22, 8.51±0.51, 9.92± 0.78 Kgm), respectively.Apparent also,the mean values of infants’ serum iron were statistically significantly higher at 6, 9, and 12 months of age in the intervention group compared to the control group (6 mo.-45.15±5.43-65.19±7.98/ 9 mo.-77.5±8.9-90.44±9.33/ 12 mo.-107.2±9.4-112.5±5.8, -P < 0.001, ug/dl),respectively