الفهرس 
BreastfeedingOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
The weaning period is a vulnerable period of life and especially so when resources are limited. Death and morbidity due to PEM in infancy continue to scourge populations in many parts of the Third World. Dietary surveys in many of these countries reveal low intakes of energy at this critical time of human development. Although some nutritionists have argued that RDA for energy for weanling infants may be set too high, intakes of many infants in the Third World are too far below international RDA to be accounted for by this alone. If energy intakes are low, then protein is used as an energy source and not for growth and tissue repair. With most foods (except very-low-protein staples, such as sweet potato), it is not difficult to satisfy human protein requirements even in infancy if energy needs are met. This is because human beings have very low protein requirements compared with other mammalian species.
Weaning foods with a low energy density contribute to the development of PEM in developing countries. This problem arises because commonly-used weaning foods are prepared from starch-rich cereal flours which, when heated with water, form semi-fluid foods of a thick consistency with low solids content.
As a consequence, more water may be added by mothers preparing weaning foods in order to produce food of a suitable consistency for their infants to consume, thus even further reducing the energy density.
Traditional food processing techniques offer the potential to reduce dietary bulk and, therefore, to promote increased food intake, yet have the major disadvantage of being time consuming.
Germination (including malting) may prove to be an important technique for reducing the dietary bulk of weaning foods, but the risk of aflatoxin contamination should not be overlooked. The addition of fat in the form of peanut butter may help, although this has not been properly studied.
The weaning formulations in the present study are based on commonly consumed, low-cost food materials locally-available. They will be potentially suitable for use as weaning foods, both at the home and commercial levels.
The fact that these formulas are inexpensive, easily available and nutritious could make them effective in solving some of the nutrition problems facing infants and children. Germination is among the simple, easily adaptable technologies for reduction of bulkiness (high viscosity) and increasing shelf-life of cereal and legume based food formulations.
Germination significantly affected the bacterial flora, microbiological safety, viscosity of formulated food products. Germination could be used as simple, household adaptable technologies for reducing bulk and increasing nutrient density of weaning food mixtures.
The current intervention study was conducted on 102 infant were 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.
Design of the study: Phase-I: descriptive study, and Phase-II: intervention study.
Inclusion criteria: Infant age 6 months and exclusively on breast feeding and will be followed until completed one year of life.
Exclusion criteria: Infant that takes any artificial feeding or takes any food besides the breast feeding.
For all children, the following were done:
Full history will be taken from the parent of infants about his health during the first 6 months of age, methods of feeding of infants, immunization and any family diseases. Anthropometric measurement (weight, length, head circumference), and routine medical examination of infants at first visit to the clinic and every month after that.
Investigation: laboratory tests were done at the first visit of the infant to the clinic and at 6 and 9 months and when the infant completed his first year of age: Serum iron, Serum ferritin and Serum transferrin.
All infants in the study were taken from the National nutrition institute. The condition of all infants that all must be exclusive breast feeding at age of first 6 months. The total number was 202 infants. The first group took the mixture of germinated cereals and legumes (102 infants). The second group is a control group of infants took ordinary prepared weaning food at home (100 infants).
All cereals and legumes were cleaned, washed, soaked in excess tap water for 6 hours except rice for 18 hours. They were spread in 1 cm of thick layer of wet cotton cloth avoid seeds accumulation and sprayed with water twice daily. The germinated times were 48 hours for legumes and 72 hours for cereals.
Weaning food mixtures were prepared using the germinated legumes in these ratios from 6-9 months: 70% rice powder, 20% powder of germinated chickpea, 5% powder of dried carrot and 5% powder of milk formula of infants. Weaning food mixtures were prepared using the germinated legumes in these ratios from 9-12 months: 70% wheat powder, 20% powder of germinated chickpea, 5% powder of dried carrot and 5% powder of milk formula of infants.