Performance of children on weaning foods in Jos, Nigeria

A Nutritional survey on weaning foods used in Jos, Nigeria, was conducted on representative samples of 572 mothers of children between the ages of one and 18 months. The nutritional status of the children was determined by using weight for age. Four weaning foods were assessed, namely, commercial weaning food (CWF), family menu, Ogi (a sour maize beverage), ogi plus legumes and/or animal products. Only 147 (25.7%) of the mothers still depended on CWF with the rest,209 (36.5%) using fortified ogi; ogi alone by 112 (19.6%) and family menu by 104 (18.2%). No differences in weight were noticed in children, aged 6 months or under. Thereafter, the children on ogi or ogi based diet had significantly lower mean weights (p < 0.01) when compared with those on CWF. This could be attributed to lack of sufficient knowledge and exposure in preparing well balanced diet from locally available food stuff by mothers. While discouraging the use of CWF because of cost, efforts should be made to educate the mothers on how to prepare traditional multimix of good nutriture. Emphasis should be placed on how to increase the energy density by adding edible oil or using sprout grains.