Effectiveness of home-based "egg-suji" diet in management of severe acute malnutrition of Rohingya refugee children

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 homemade 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 homemade diet for 3 months by their caregivers and followed up for next 2 months. Nutrition counseling, demonstration of food preparation and the ingredients of food (rice powder, egg, sugar and oil) were provided to the families for 3 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 3 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, and MUACZ improved from - 3.32 +/- 0.49 to 1.8 +/- 0.54 (P = 0.001) from the beginning to the 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.