Abstract:
Iron deficiency is the most common nutritional disorder in infancy. Infants aged 6-
24 months are at high risk. Rapid growth of infants during this period of life requires an
adequate supply of iron that cannot be covered by breast milk. Weaning food with high
bioavailable iron has to be given to the child during this critical period. In this study,
three homemade infant foods were formulated from locally available food materials:
rice-based meals with vegetable and protein, fruit blends or mixed fruit and fruit juice.
These foods and some identical commercial infant foods based on cereals (wheat and
rice), milk products, vegetables and fruits were measured for iron availability by in vitro
determination.
The commercial weaning mixtures had significantly higher iron content (5.26±4.0
mg/meal) than the weaning foods locally formulated (1.52±0.94 mg/meal), p<0.001.
This was expected because industrially produced infant foods are commonly fortified
with insoluble iron compounds sufficient to meet the iron requirements of infants. The
mean percentage of ionizable iron observed in the commercial groups was lower than
the homemade groups (10.7% vs 15.7%) because of the higher phytate content (7.7 vs
4.2 mg/meal, p<0.05) and the iron compounds used by most producers have low iron
bioavailability. The 95% confidence intervals were 11.00 to 20.25% and 6.6 to 14.83%
for homemade and commercial meals. However, as the commercial foods are ironfortified
and the mean iron content was about 3.5 times of the homemade formulas, the
estimated iron availability (EIA, 0.559 mg/meal) was found to be 2.5 times of the
average EIA (0.23 mg/meal) from homemade mixtures (p<0.005). Homemade foods
with pork liver were found to be as good as the commercial wheat and rice-based
formulas. Some selected rice-based meals with iron-rich vegetables (Ivygourd leaves),
and chicken or pork liver, contributed up to 0.76 and 0.78 mg of the EIA per meal from
more than 3 mg of iron intake per meal. These amounts can fulfill the daily requirement
of 0.7 to 1.0 mg absorbed iron for infants.
In conclusion, the commercial products are good at meeting the nutritional and
development needs for infants, but they are very expensive compared to similar
homemade foods. Nutritious and economical weaning foods can be simply prepared
from locally available food materials. Supplementary iron is not required if iron
containing foods such as meats, some vegetables,or legumes are used in the preparation.