Objective: To examine the catch up growth in severely wasted children using energy dense local foods at a hospital based nutrition rehabilitation unit.
Design: Retrospective cohort.
Setting: In-patient ward at a tertiary care government pediatric hospital in Hyderabad.
Patients: Children with severe malnutrition (n=309) admitted to nutrition ward from January 2001 to December 2005.
Intervention: A diet based on energy dense local foods along with multivitamin-multimineral supplements.
Main outcome measures: Catch up growth (g/kg/day) during each week of hospital stay.
Results: Mean age of the children was 25 months (range 2-60). Their baseline weight for height (WHZ) Z score was -4.1. Mean weight gain was moderate (5g/kg/day) and baseline WHZ score had a significant negative relationship to the weight gain. The prevalence of morbidities was high and the commonest morbidity was fever. Weight gain was higher by almost 40% in the absence of morbidities in any week.
Conclusions: The diet based on local energy dense foods was found to be suitable for the nutrition rehabilitation of severely malnourished children though the rate of weight gain was moderate.