Abstract
Child malnutrition is a major public health problem in Tanzania that significantly contributes to infant mortality. To address this issue, the Tanzania Food and Nutrition Centre (TFNC) has developed a nutritional food for weaning children called Lishe. Local processors have adopted this product and sold it as a supplementary food. In this study, a questionnaire was administered to 15 women with small children in Village A and 13 in Villages B and C in the rural Morogoro district of Tanzania in March and August 2025 regarding their preparation and purchasing of Lishe. Their opinions on Lishe and its impact on their children’s health was also investigated. The results indicated that the majority of women were familiar with Lishe. Among them, 60–70% learned about Lishe from health service workers, while the remaining women learned about it from friends and relatives. Most of the women (80%) in Village A and 30.8% women each in Village B and C prepared Lishe themselves, while in the latter villages, several women purchased Lishe from shops. Regarding impact, 60–70% of respondents across all villages believed supplementary foods positively impacted their children’s health. This study suggests that while traditional diets can enable a balanced nutrition, more advocacy regarding children’s diets is needed to improve child nutrition in Tanzania.
