Mealnourish - rule-based healthy meal planner system for malnourished children

Malnutrition among children is a critical public health issue. It remains so, particularly in developing nations where access to balanced diets and nutritional knowledge is often inadequate. Addressing this challenge requires not only clinical and policy-based interventions but also creative and innovative technological solutions. Therefore, this research developed a web-based expert system designed to assist caregivers in planning nutritionally balanced meals for malnourished children. The system makes recommendations based on age, gender, weight, height, and dietary preferences. Developed as a web-based application, the system integrates MySQL for data management and Flask for backend functionality. The development process follows the Waterfall Model, which includes requirements analysis, system design, implementation, testing, and evaluation. Meal plans are generated using recipes from the Nutritionists’ Choice Cookbook Volumes I and II. Evaluation results show that the system provides user-friendly, customized meal plans that comply with Malaysia’s Dietary Guidelines for Children and Adolescents. In the future, the system will be enhanced by expanding the recipe database, integrating real-time dietary tracking features, and developing a mobile app version to increase accessibility and convenience.