The role of traditional cereal/legume/fruit‐based multimixes in weaning in developing countries

Abstract

The weaning period is a crucial stage in the growth and development of the infant and child. The timing of weaning, the choice of foods, their methods of preparation, and how weanlings are fed, all affect the outcome. The commercial preparation of weaning foods and the fortification of some traditional foods are seen by some as the most sustainable and cost‐effective means of alleviating micronutrient deficiencies among infants and children. This may be true in industrialized countries, but the same cannot necessarily be said of poor, developing countries. Demonstrates that, even in poor communities, it is possible to combine scant food resources in a cost‐effective way to formulate multimixes which would meet energy, protein and micronutrient needs, without fortification. Proposes that such approaches can be used in community nutrition education programmes to help reduce childhood malnutrition and in emergency feeding programmes.