Wasting and stunting problems at an early age cause body vulnerability to the development of degenerative diseases in adulthood and have an impact on long-term cognitive development and child productivity. The immediate causes are inadequate nutritional intake and infectious diseases. This situation is closely related to low levels of education and income, poverty, lack of knowledge of nutrition or the ability to apply information in everyday life1.
Efforts to improve child nutrition are conducted through Supplementary Feeding of date-tempeh biscuit. The reason for choosing biscuits made of date-tempeh from tempeh flour and date palm fruit is based on the high protein content in tempeh, while dates are high in glucose, vitamins A and C and Ferrous to increase appetite2.
However, efforts by the government and private sector/NGOs to improve family nutrition are often only aimed at toddlers with less nutrition and malnutrition. Such efforts are rarely focused on stunted and wasted toddlers. Therefore in a new study researchers conducted a study of nutritional intervention for stunted and wasted toddlers from poor families to save the children from being stunted3.
Although there was no effect between macro and micro-nutrient intake in change weight/height and height/age scores in underweight children, this group had the highest mean difference in energy, carbohydrate, protein, fat and iron intakes compared to the others. There was a correlation between mean difference in carbohydrate intake with mean difference in weight and between final weights with the difference in mean fat intake in all groups.
Date-tempeh biscuit are recommended as an alternative option for Supplementary Feeding recovery at community health centers, integrated health post for children under-five years of school-children feeding programs and TFC (Therapeutic Feeding Center) at community health centre by District Health Office.
The improvement of flour based tempeh date biscuits can be converted into mocaf flour (modified cassava) or cassava flour, ganyong flour, arrowroot flour, breadfruit flour and other starch sources. In addition, tempeh flour can also be substituted with lentil bean flour (koro) as a source of protein. Date-tempeh biscuit based on the flours described above are safe for children with autism who should avoid wheat flour and cow’s milk.
Thus it was established from the study that Date-tempeh biscuits can increase weight and height in wasted, stunted and wasted-stunted toddlers during 3 months of intervention.
Keywords:
Date-tempeh biscuit, stunted, wasted, stunted-wasted, toddlers, weight and height, lentil bean flour, tempeh flour, arrowroot flour, improvement of flour, District Health Office, Therapeutic Feeding Center, community health centre, micro-nutrient intake, nutrition, growth parameter, healthy diet.
References:
- Gupta, R.P.S., M.L. de Wit and D. McKeown, 2007. The impact of poverty on the current and future health status of children. Child Health, 12: 667-672.
- Fatmah, H., 2013. Effect of tempeh dates biscuits on nutritional status of preschool children with tuberculosis. Malaysian J. Nutr., 19: 173-184.
- Fatmah , 2018. Impact of Date-tempeh Biscuit on the Nutritional Status of Stunted and Wasted Toddlers. J. Nutr., 17: 542-549.
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