Infant feeding practices and probiotics effects on nutritional recovery and morbidity of severely malnourished infants in Democratic Republic of Congo: PhD thesis defended on June 15th, 2023 at UCLouvain, Brussels, Belgium

Abstract

Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) is a major public health concern. Recent evidence has shown that dysbiosis leads to malnutrition and recurrent infections. Several interventions targeting the gut microbiota, including probiotics, have emerged as promising treatment. We assessed infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices, infectious diseases experienced by children with SAM, and the effect of probiotics on the pneumonia, diarrhea, and nutritional recovery in children with SAM in Democratic Republic of Congo. IYCF practices were suboptimal; the main infectious diseases of children with SAM were pneumonia, diarrhea, bacteremia and malaria; probiotics reduced the number of days with diarrhea, if any, and the risk of diarrhea in children aged 16 months and older; a higher proportion of children receiving probiotics reached nutritional recovery after 6 weeks, but at 12 weeks, no effect was found. Optimization of mother-child nutrition, microbiological surveillance of children with SAM, and implementation of local probiotic-based foods may improve the survival of children with SAM.