Investigation of food diversity of children under five in Mzimba, Malawi

Background and Objectives: In Malawi, a lot of foods and many varieties of foods are available at markets. However, more than a half of children under five were malnourished. This gap between high availability of foods and a high appearance rate of child malnutrition suggested that foods at markets were not reaching children properly. In order to know the real food-intake of children under 5 and their food procurement processes, we conducted an HDDS (Household Dietary Diversity Score; developed by United Nations) survey by using a 24-hour recall method. Method: We selected 151 children under 5 years of age randomly in Manyamula, Mzimba, Malawi. Of them, 24 children were age 0-5 months, 51 were 6-23 months, and 76 were 24-59 months. Then we conducted home-visits to those target children and collected information from their mothers about what foods their children had eaten and how those foods were acquired. We simultaneously measured the children's height and weight. For this survey, we got ethical permission from the ethical committee of local government and informed consents from each household. Results: Among 16 food groups, the only 5 food groups were eaten by nearly 100% of the target children and only 3 food groups were eaten by 50%. The remaining 8 food groups such as fish, animal meats, dairy products and vitamin A rich food groups were hardly eaten by any of them. In their daily lives, village people seldom procure foods for their meals from the market. They do not try new foods. Their foods were mainly supplied by their own agricultural products. Consideration: Village people were mainly getting foods from their own agricultural products and not procuring them from the market. It seemed quite difficult to go to the market because of social and geographical difficulties. Vitamin A rich foods were not eaten because they are not produced in the area. They hardly eat house-farmed poultry because house animals are treated not as food stuffs but treasures or emergency foods. These social and cultural problems were disturbing food availability, accessibility and utilization, resulting in poor food diversity.