Nutritional status of 24 to 71 month old children of the Talaandig Tribe in Lantapan, Bukidnon, Philippines fed with job's tear 'adlai' [Coix lacryma � Jobi L.]

This study was conducted to determine the effect of feeding adlai porridge on the dietary intake and nutritional status of 24 to 71 month old children enrolled in the Schools for the Living Traditions in Talaandig Communities in Lantapan, Bukidnon, Philippines using complete enumeration. Based on the preliminary study conducted, Gulian variety contained the highest amount of crude protein (15.12 g per 100 g) and the most generally acceptable variety when cooked thus; it was the variety used in the feeding study. Gulian was further tested for its mineral and anti-nutrient content. Results showed that there was significant reduction in the crude fat, crude protein, calcium, iron, phytate and oxalate when cooked into porridge. Sixty three children were involved in the study who were divided into two groups; experimental and control. The children in the experimental group were feed with adlai porridge while rice porridge was given to those in the control. Three sets of data were gathered during the conduct of the study (baseline, midline and endline) for dietary and anthropometric measurements. Anthropometric measurements (height and weight) and dietary intake (food recall and dietary diversity) were used to measure nutritional status and nutrient adequacy, respectively. The socio-demographic and economic factors and health characteristics of the children were also evaluated. Results showed that occupation of mothers or legal guardian was strongly associated with underweight and moderately associated with stunting and wasting while gender was moderately associated with wasting. Presence of fever, cough, and colds were moderately associated with underweight while protein, iron, and dietary diversity score were moderately associated with underweight.After the 120 days feeding period, the number of children having 'underweight' nutritional status was highly reduced at 74.2% among the children fed with rice. Mean increase in the intake and adequacy of energy, protein, calcium and iron was also greater among the children fed with adlai compared to the control group. The results suggest the potentials of adlai as a supplementary food to be used in feeding programs among preschool children.