Objective: To evaluate the role of an energy-dense diet liquefied with amylase-rich flour from germinated wheat (ARF) in increasing the energy intake in severely malnourished infants and young children and its acceptability to mothers.
Design: A randomized controlled clinical trial with two sets of controls.
Setting: Nutrition rehabilitation unit of a large diarrhoea treatment centre where mothers stay with their very severely malnourished children.
Subjects: 78 severely malnourished children aged 5-18 months just recovered from diarrhoea.
Intervention: Children were randomly assigned to receive either an energy-dense porridge made liquid by adding ARF (test diet) or an unaltered thick porridge of similar energy density (control 1 diet), or the porridge made liquid with addition of water to have the same viscosity as the test diet but of lower energy (control 2 diet), in four major meals a day for 5 days and intake was measured; breast-milk was measured by test weighing. Children also received an additional three milk-cereal meals a day.
Results: The mean energy intake (95% CI, P value for difference between test and control) was 385 (339-431), 289 (251-327, P < 0.005), and 255 (222-289, P < 0.001) kJ/kg.d respectively. Feeding test diet was not associated with significant adverse effects e.g. on diarrhoea, vomiting, breast-milk intake, and was well accepted by mothers.
Conclusion: The results suggest that use of an energy-dense ARF-treated liquefied porridge increases calorie intake by very severely malnourished children during convalescence from diarrhoea, and that it does not produce any adverse effect.