Children and malnutrition

From Wikiprogress.org

About

Good nutrition is vital for the cognitive and physical development and has both short and long term impacts on the quality of life experienced by individuals. Although good nutrition is vital throughout the course of individual’s lives it is particularly important during the period of conception until when the child is approximately two years of age. Pregnancy and infancy are the most important periods for brain development. Health and nutrition during early childhood is a strong reflection of countries’ level of development as these conditions are directly linked to existing policies, programmes and national plans which focus on early childhood well-being and children’s rights ^[1]

Some children affected by malnutrition do survive, but suffer lifelong physical and cognitive impairments because deficiencies in nutrients that they suffered early in their lives when their growing bodies and minds were most vulnerable. For children who start their lives malnourished, the negative effects are largely irreversible. Mothers and babies need good nutrition to lay the foundation for the child’s future cognitive, motor and social skills, school success and productivity. Children with restricted brain development in early life are at risk of developing neurological problems, poor school achievement, early school drop out, lowskilled employment and poor care of their own children, thus contributing to the intergenerational transmission of poverty. ^[2]

On an annual basis malnutrition contributes to the death of 5.6 million children under the age of five in non-industrialized societies. ^[3] A malnourished child is up to 10 times as likely to die from an easily preventable or treatable disease as a well-nourished child and a chronically malnourished child is more vulnerable to acute malnutrition during food shortages, economic crises and other emergencies.^[4]

In the developing world, malnutrition causes millions of children to develop too slowly and prevents millions of people from achieving their full development potential. Children are particularly vulnerable to the effects of malnutrition predominantly those of infectious secondary immune deficiency, learning deficits and, subsequently, school drop-out. Furthermore, malnutrition risks girls’ ability to have healthy children in the future thus perpetuating the generational cycle of poverty.^[5]

Alternatively good nutrition, is a fundamental component of survival, health and development for current and future generations. Good nutrition reduces the risks women face during pregnancy and labour and helps their children to develop better physically and mentally. ^[6]

Good nutrition has economic benefits, as a well nourished population is more productive individually, it has fewer ongoing health issues and associated care costs and higher economic performance levels. It is estimated that good infant and child nutrition leads to 2–3% growth annually in the economic wealth of developing countries. Additionally addressing malnutrition in early life can increase lifetime earnings by 20%. ^[7]

Persistent and worsening malnutrition in developing countries is a fundamental obstacle to achieving a number of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). MDG 1 includes halving the proportion of people living in hunger. MDG 2 is to ensure all children complete primary school. MDG 4 aims to reduce the world’s 1990 under-5 mortality rate by two thirds. MDG 5 aims to reduce the 1990 maternal mortality ratio by three quarters. And MDG 6 is to halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS and the incidence of malaria and other major diseases. Improving nutrition assists progress towards achieving all of these MDGs. ^[8]

Forms of malnourishment

Malnutrition takes several forms, however it applies to persons suffering chronic loss of muscle mass and subcutaneous fat owing to insufficient energy and protein intake. In its early acute stages, malnutrition affects only weight and body composition, however when it becomes more deeply chronic, individuals suffer from altered stunted growth, height and impaired physical and intellectual ability.^[9]

Stunting –
Refers to when a child is too short for their age caused by an inadequate diet and frequent infections. Most commonly stunting occurs before age 2, and the effects are mostly irreversible. Effects include delayed motor development, impaired cognitive function and poor school performance. 171 million children – 27 percent of all children globally are stunted. ^[10]

Wasting –
Refers to when a child is too low for their height due to acute malnutrition. Wasting is a strong predictor of mortality among children under 5. It is usually caused by severe food shortage or disease. In total, over 60 million children – 10 percent of all children globally are wasted. ^[11]

Underweight –
Refers to when the weight of a child is too low for his/her age due to stunting, wasting or both conditions. Weight is a sensitive indicator of short-term/acute undernutrition. Deficits in height (stunting) are difficult to correct; deficits in weight (underweight) can be addressed if nutrition and health are improved later on in childhood. Throughout the world, more than 100 million children are underweight and being underweight is associated with 19 % of child deaths. ^[12]

Micronutrient deficiency –
Refers to when a child lacks essential vitamins or minerals including vitamin A, iron and zinc. Micronutrient deficiencies are due to a long-term lack of nutritious food or infections such as worms. They are are associated with 10 % of all children’s deaths, or approximately one-third of all child deaths due to malnutrition. ^[13]

Protein-energy malnutrition (PEM), vitamin A deficiency, iodine deficiency disorders (IDD) and nutritional anaemias which primarily result from iron deficiency or iron losses are the most common serious nutritional problems in almost all countries of Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Near East.^[14]

The current situation of child malnutrition in the world

One in four of the world’s children are chronically malnourished, or stunted. These children have not received the essential nutrients they require causing their bodies and brains to not develop properly. Throughout the world 171 million children are experiencing chronic malnutrition meaning that a large portion of the world’s children are not only shorter than they otherwise would be, but face long term cognitive impairment. More than 80 countries in the developing world have child stunting rates of 20 percent or more. Thirty of these countries have very high stunting rates of 40 percent or more. Four countries – Afghanistan, Burundi, East Timor and Yemen – have stunting rates close to 60 percent. Up to a third of children in Asia are stunted (100 million of the global total) and in Africa, almost 2 in every 5 children are stunted equalling a total of 60 million children. ^[15]

Measuring child malnutrition

Due to issues of food insecurity and children’s sensitivity to even short term food constraints, it is argued that analysis of health and nutrition indicators should include the environmental and social determinants of disease, mortality, poor population groups’ quality of life and the yawning inequality gaps between and within countries. ^[16]

These indicators are effective to characterize the type of malnutrition, the people who suffer from it and where they are to obtain an indication of the level of risk to various population groups and accordingly an overview of the situation for the purposes of diagnosis and formulation of overall evaluation strategies – some differentiated and others targeted. ^[17]

It is challenging to make an accurate assessment of a person’s nutritional status. As a concept it may can be gauged through a series of clinical, physical or functional characteristics, which may be used as additional indicators if a threshold value for separating the malnourished from the well-nourished is incorporated. ^[18]

It is necessary to include mothers and children when measuring child nutrition due to the dependence of the nutritional well-being of children on their mothers during first 1000 days, comprising pregnancy and the first two years of life. ^[19]

Within this context it is necessary to consider the following areas:
Mothers
• Antenatal care coverage
• Malnutrition in pregnant women
Children
• Low birthweight
• Exclusive breastfeeding until the sixth month of life
• Early initiation of breastfeeding
• Under the age of five, includes the next 550 days for “1000” and even more
• Health indicator - mortality in a child under the age of five
• Nutritional indicators including nutritional status (low or high), stunting; anaemia and iron deficiency in children under five years of age^[20]

Variables relating to birth and early childhood are particularly sensitive to policy changes and the state of well-being. Child health indicators are strongly related to economic and political indicators. ^[21]

See also

Child Nutrition
Undernutrition
Freshwater
Children and Sustainable Development

References

1. ↑ UNESCO, 2012, Health and Nutrition Indicators in Early Childhood
2. ↑ Save the Children, 2012, State of the World’s Mothers 2012: Nutrition in the First 1,000 Days
3. ↑ UNESCO, 2012, Health and Nutrition Indicators in Early Childhood
4. ↑ Save the Children, 2012, State of the World’s Mothers 2012: Nutrition in the First 1,000 Days
5. ↑ UNESCO, 2012, Health and Nutrition Indicators in Early Childhood
6. ↑ UNESCO, 2012, Health and Nutrition Indicators in Early Childhood
7. ↑ Overseas Development Institute (ODI) by Save the Children and UNICEF, 2012, Progress on Child Well-Being: Building on what works
8. ↑ Overseas Development Institute (ODI) by Save the Children and UNICEF, 2012, Progress on Child Well-Being: Building on what works
9. ↑ UNESCO, 2012, Health and Nutrition Indicators in Early Childhood
10. ↑ Save the Children, 2012, State of the World’s Mothers 2012: Nutrition in the First 1,000 Days
11. ↑ Save the Children, 2012, State of the World’s Mothers 2012: Nutrition in the First 1,000 Days
12. ↑ Save the Children, 2012, State of the World’s Mothers 2012: Nutrition in the First 1,000 Days
13. ↑ Save the Children, 2012, State of the World’s Mothers 2012: Nutrition in the First 1,000 Days
14. ↑ Food and Agricultural Organisation Human Nutrition in the Developing World
15. ↑ Save the Children, 2012, State of the World’s Mothers 2012: Nutrition in the First 1,000 Days
16. ↑ UNESCO, 2012, Health and Nutrition Indicators in Early Childhood
17. ↑ UNESCO, 2012, Health and Nutrition Indicators in Early Childhood
18. ↑ UNESCO, 2012, Health and Nutrition Indicators in Early Childhood
19. ↑ UNESCO, 2012, Health and Nutrition Indicators in Early Childhood
20. ↑ UNESCO, 2012, Health and Nutrition Indicators in Early Childhood
21. ↑ UNESCO, 2012, Health and Nutrition Indicators in Early Childhood