Complementary feeding
One of the weakest pointes in feeding practices in Eritrea is complementary feeding practices following exclusive breast feeding.
In additions a Trial of Improved practices conducted in 2020 revealed that no special attention is given to child feeding practices for children 6-24 months. No food is specially prepared for the children at this age.
A child 6 months to 24 months should be introduced to plenty of fruits and vegetables. To improve resilience during complementary feeding practices, care providers are advised to prepare enriched gruel powder (sibko prepared with cereals, enriched with protein by including (germinated) legumes and oil seeds) Moreover, caregivers must save some dried meat for the child after each holiday (the time the family slaughters a goat or sheep) so that the child has access to protein-rich food all the time. To increase mineral intake careproviders are advised to include dried pumpkin seed powder to supplement the child's food with. And to secure the intake of vitamin A-rich foods, and improve food diversity pumpkin, a commodity that is readily available and cheap is promoted. Other vitamin A-rich food sources are green leafy vegetables.
Since kitcha a cereal based flat (or raised) bread is eaten several times per day, nutritionally enriching the content of kitcha, by adding legume powder (chick beans and fava beans powder), and either peanut powder or flax seed powder or pumpkin the nutritional content of kitcha can be improved.
