Dietary Patterns and Predictors of Food Insecurity and Poor Diet Among Children Less Than 5 Years in the Arid and Semi‐Arid Region of Kenya: A Longitudinal Study

We examined the diets of children 6-23 and 24-59 months participating in a 2 year, six-wave longitudinal study conducted in Samburu and Turkana counties, Kenya. Data were collected between June 2021 and September 2023. Information on child feeding practices was collected following WHO and UNICEF guidelines. Grains, roots, and tubers were nearly universally consumed. Dairy was the dominant animal source food (ASF), though declined sharply from Wave 1-5 among children 6-23 months and remained low across waves among children 24-59 months. The proportion of children who consumed fruits and vegetables, legumes and nuts, and eggs was low across waves. About half of the children, 6-23 months consumed sweet drinks at Wave 1, and consumption increased thereafter in both counties. Among children 24-59 months, nearly 90% of children in Samburu and about 65% in Turkana consumed a sweet drink across waves. Across all survey waves, only 11% and 5% of observations included foods from four or more food groups (representing minimum dietary diversity) in Samburu and Turkana, respectively. The mean number of food groups consumed ranged between 1.5 and 2.5, even among food-secure households, though children in food-secure households consumed about 0.5 more food groups. Children were more likely to consume dairy or any other ASF compared with their mothers, suggesting that mothers prioritize the nutritional needs of children over their own. The high prevalence of sweet drink consumption is mainly from sweetened tea, often given as a milk substitute when milk is unavailable in pastoral and agropastoral households.