Where experts had to step in to ensure parents give children vitamin-rich foods

Monday 2 pm. A small cloud of dust blows behind our vehicle as we wind down a rugged path in Ildamat ward, Kajiado Central. The Healthy Nation team is headed to Dorris Karosei’s home to talk to her about her three-year-old daughter’s nutrition, and the lessons she has learnt over the past two years.

Our purpose here is to find out how lack of adequate nutrition education among mothers, sometimes due to cultural practices, can affect children’s development — especially ones below the age of five when proper nutrition is most critical. We find her doing some house chores, with the 38-month-old playing nearby.

“I registered for the Universal Child Benefit (UCB) programme when my baby was a year old,” Ms Karosei begins. “I heard about UCB from a community health volunteer and when I registered, I started attending classes on how to feed my child, and receiving a monthly stipend of Sh800 to buy her the various food items we were being taught about.”

Ms Ruth Mbuthia, a nutritionist from Save the Children, says UCB is a pilot programme started by the organisation in the counties of Kajiado, Embu and Kisumu to cushion mothers against the socio-economic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as educate them on proper nutrition.

“Apart from economic hardships, we realised there was a vast knowledge gap. Many mothers lacked training on proper nutrition for their children and why it is vital especially during the first five years,” she says.

Back to Ms Karosei, she recounts how she had been looking after her child prior to joining the programme. 

“In our community, our diet mostly consists of ugali, meat and milk. And that is what we also feed our children. We start feeding them cow’s cream when the baby is just a week old. This is how I have raised all my six children. As soon as they were a year old, I stopped breastfeeding. I would also start giving my children porridge when they were three or four months old,” she says.

She added that fruits and vegetables were not a common occurrence on the dinner table, noting such foods as vegetables are considered a poor man’s diet. 

Ms Karosesi added that she could afford to buy the children fruits and that she did not know why they were important. Thus, she could not understand why she should spend her money on such kinds of groceries.
Ms Mbuthia, the nutritionist, notes that a child should not be fed cow’s milk before they are one year old, leave alone cream which is heavier and fatty.

“Cow milk may put a baby at risk of intestinal bleeding. It also has too many proteins and minerals for the baby’s kidneys to handle and does not have the right amount of nutrients your baby needs. A baby needs to be exclusively breastfed for six months and should breastfeed till they are two years. This is critical especially amongst pastoral communities like in Kajiado,” she  observes.

Since joining the programme, Ms Karosei notes that she extended her daughter’s breastfeeding by a year till she was two and she started buying fruits and vegetables for her family, adding her baby’s health visibly improved. 

As the programme also aimed at encouraging fathers to take up a more active role in raising their children, she says her husband will also buy groceries for the family or contribute money for the same without much hesitation.

Next, we join Jecinta Ndungi in her home in Kajiado Township. She is a mother of three boys, and her youngest – who is the beneficiary –  is four years old. She begins by noting that the boy is an amputee, and she was introduced to the programme a month after his surgery.

“I learnt about UCB from a friend who told me there was a programme targeting children below three years. So, I went to the chief’s office and registered. Afterwards, we had lessons spanning three months where we got to learn a lot on how we are supposed to feed small children,” said Ms Ndungi.

Ms Ndungi says vegetables to her meant sukumawiki only, and fruits were a luxury as she had more pressing needs for her family. 
She says she would prioritise buying other foodstuffs for her children, as finances were limited, and her husband had neglected them after their last born fell ill.

“But when I started receiving the monthly stipend, I would ensure I utilised it on buying fruits, especially for my last born who was still in recovery. I had learnt besides the medication he was taking, vitamins were crucial to boosting his immunity and protecting him from chance infections and aid his healing process.”

Ms Ndungi said she was also able to put some of the money aside and start a small garden outside her house. She also bought a few chickens and ducks to provide her family with eggs. 

Like Ms Karosei, Ms Ndungi admits that despite economic factors being a hindrance to providing her baby with the proper recommended diet, the biggest hindrance was lack of knowledge.
Rhoda Orumoy is the children’s officer for the Kajiado Central sub-county. She says that the biggest challenge in nutrition within the county is posed by cultural practices.

“Getting people to unlearn harmful practices and start doing things differently is quite difficult, but you have to start from somewhere. Once you start educating these mothers the need for proper nutrition and get them to understand that they are doing it for the betterment of their children’s health, and then go as far as providing resources to the mothers, then you will be able to question them and follow up on whether they are actually feeding their children as is recommended by experts,”  said Ms Orumoy, adding that in areas where the programme has been running, cases of illnesses such as common cold have significantly reduced.

Ms Mbuthia said the cases of reported stunted growth among children went down from 25.3 percent in 2021 to about 14 percent in 2022 in Kajiado Central.

One of the challenges faced in implementing the programme, said Ms Mbuthia, was that due to drought, some women who received stipends prioritised buying food for the whole family rather than focusing on a special diet for the young ones.

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