Effect of ikametebiwawo bars as an alternative high protein supplement on the nutritional status of stunting toddlers

Abstract

Ikametebiwawo bars are complementary foods made from local food typical of West Nusa Tenggara which contains essential amino acids as an alternative food for stunting toddlers. This study aimed to analyze the effect of giving ikametebiwawo bars as an alternative high-protein supplement to the nutritional status of stunted toddler. It is a healthy soft bar with the local food as primary raw materials such as mackerel fish, red beans, soybean tempeh, sweet potatoes, pumpkin (yellow pumpkin), and carrots. This study used a pre-post quasi-experimental design with a non-equivalent control group design. The subjects of this study were 20 toddlers who were divided into 2 groups consisting of 10 stunted toddlers in the intervention group and 10 toddlers with normal nutritional status in the control group. The food bar for this intervention was 40 g/day with an intervention duration of 90 days. Paired t-test was used to test the mean difference before and after the intervention. There was a significant effect of giving Ikametebiwawo Bars to stunting toddlers with an increase in serum albumin (p = 0.007), body weight (p = 0.025), and height (p = 0.048), while there was no effect on lymphocyte levels (p = 0.075) and hemoglobin levels (p = 0.068). Ikametebiwawo bars administration had a significant effect on increasing serum albumin, height and weight. The author recommends ikametebiwawo bars as an additional food high in amino acids to overcome stunting problems in toddlers.