Effectiveness of Home Based ‘Egg-suji’ Diet in Management of Severe Acute Malnutrition of Rohingya Refugee Children

Abstract Background Prevalence of Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) among Rohingya children aged 6-59 months who took shelter in refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar district, Bangladesh was found to be 7.5%. Objective To measure the effectiveness of home made diet in the management of Severe Acute Malnutrition of Rohingya Refugee Children. Methods In total 645 SAM children (MUAC <11.5 cm) aged 6-59 months were selected and fed the home made diet for three months by their caregivers and followed up for next two months. Nutrition counseling, demonstration of food preparation and the ingredients of food (rice powder, egg, sugar and oil) were provided to the families for three months to cook ‘Egg-suji’ diet to feed the children. Results The study children were assessed for nutritional status. After intervention, energy intake from diet increased from 455.29±120.9 Kcal/day to 609.61±29.5 Kcal/day (P=0.001) in three months. Frequency of daily food intake improved from 4.89±1.02 to 5.94±0.26 (P=0.001). The body weight of children increased from 6.3±1.04 kg to 9.93±1.35 kg (p=0.001) height increased from 67.93±6.18 cm to 73.86±0.35 (p=0.001) cm and MUAC improved from 11.14±1.35 cm to 12.89±0.37 cm (P=0.001). HAZ improved from -3.64 ±1.35 to -2.82±1.40 (p=0.001) WHZ improved from -2.45±1.23 to 1.03±1.17 (p=0.001) WAZ improved from -3.8 ±0.61 to -0.69±0.78, MUACZ improved from -3.32±0.49 to 1.8±0.54 (P=0.001) from beginning to end of observation. Morbidity was found in 5.12% children in the first month which reduced to 0.15% at the end of follow up. Conclusions Nutritional counseling and supply of food ingredients at refugee camps resulted in complete recovery from severe malnutrition for all children which was sustainable.