Good food hygiene practices in urban informal settlements of Kisumu, Kenya

Good food hygiene practices reduce faecal contamination in child food, but do not reduce enteric infections and child diarrhoea. Children in urban settlements are more susceptible to diarrhoea because of poor sanitation and overcrowding. The purpose of this study was to delineate food handling practices in urban settlements, to inform an intervention aimed at reducing enteric infections. Data was collected using observation and in-depth interviews. Twenty one out of 31 caregivers who participated in the study were biological mothers, the remaining were relatives or nonrelatives. Over half the infants had several alternative caregivers providing care in or outside the home. Food preparation and feeding was done by the caregiver providing care when the child was hungry. These findings imply that child care in the informal settlements is done by multiple caregivers, suggesting that food hygiene interventions should give attention to all likely child caregivers to reduce diarrheal disease.