Malnutrition threatens Kenyan children

Weaning prematurely also increases the chances of VAD.

“Breast milk is the best natural source of Vitamin A for babies and should not be substituted,” said Professor Bwibo: a view corroborated by Mater Hospital’s paediatric department.

Currently, the most recent NGO estimates suggest some 15 per cent of Kenyan children are already in the acute stages of the condition, with more than another 40 per cent moving towards acute VAD.

However, in most children, the root cause of their ailments is never spotted, and the deaths that follow are ascribed to diarrhoea, pneumonia, and malaria.

nutritionists Say even moving children from eating ugali, which has virtually zero nutritional value to sweet potato, githeri and red vegetables can stem the problem, most especially in young children.

Studies in western Kenya have shown the orange-fleshed sweet potatoes are one of the best foods available anywhere in the world for supplying Vitamin A.

The potatoes offer up to eight times the level of carotene necessary for making vitamin A in the body than other vitamin A foods.

African Laughter