Toasted full-fat soya flour in treatment of kwashiorkor.

Soya bean formulae have, for some time, received considerable attention as substitutes for human and cows' milk in infant feeding (Dean, 1953), but relatively little is known about the value of soya as a substitute for cows' milk in the treatment of acute kwashiorkor. Dean (1952) found that the progress of children with uncomplicated kwashiorkor on a locally prepared soya banana mixture was similar to that on the best of the milk protein diets then available, but nevertheless considered that a milk protein diet should be regarded as the treatment of choice for the most severe cases. Thompson (1955), who used the same mixture as Dean, obtained satisfactory results in 5500 of the children treated with soya and in 80% of those treated with milk in an unselected series of 43 cases with kwashiorkor admitted to Mulago Hospital. The better results with milk were thought to be due partly to the possibility of feeding larger amounts of protein in this form. More recently, Dutra de Oliveira et al. (1966) have compared a soya formula prepared from an aqueous extract of the bean with a cows' milk formula, containing an equal amount of protein, in the treatment of children with acute malnutrition, and have found that the soya formula was as effective as the cows' milk formula in the initial treatment. In 1963, Omans, Leuterer, and Gyorgy investigated a number of soya products in premature infants and showed that a full-fat soya flour produced better gain in weight and less gastro-intestinal disturbance than soya formulae prepared from aqueous extracts of the bean. In Uganda, as in other countries, hospital treatment of kwashiorkor is, at present, based on the use of dried skimmed milk. The supply of this milk, however, is likely to diminish considerably. In 1966 a toasted full-fat soya flour, which it was hoped to put into local production, became available