Malnutrition causes severe health hazards for children

Lack of awareness and economic hardship are contributing to malnutrition of newborn babies causing their abnormal growth, short stature and disabilities.

Early-life malnutrition is an important risk factor for later-life adult diseases and malnutrition contributes mostly to child deaths. 

Saving the lives of children in Bangladesh will require a steady focus on nutrition, according to the doctors.

Md Tutul Uddin and Helena Akther- a happily married couple - were blessed with a child after 10 years of their marriage. But it was not an exception that they gave birth to a malnourished baby.

Though Helena was very happy after giving birth to a baby son 20 months ago, she has been having a painful time for the last few months due to the sickness of her son.

Her son Ratul did not seem to be a healthy baby in terms of his age and he was not even taking food necessary for his health for the last few days. Sensing something wrong his parents took him to Sreemangal Upazila health complex in Moulvibazar where doctors diagnosed him with severe malnutrition.

Ratul’s weight is only six and a half kilograms, much below his required weight of 9 to 10 kg. Moreover, his height is also not enough. 

Like Ratul, three-year-old Pratul, two-and-a-half-year-old Sunny and four-year-old Paritosh were also admitted to this health complex with severe malnutrition. 

Paritosh’s mother Rani Dey said her son has been suffering from severe malnutrition from an early age. He was only 1.5 kg at his birth. Four months ago he was admitted to the hospital. After five days of treatment, the doctors released him, giving him some medicines and vitamins. Now, his weight increased to 12 kg. However, he’s not as tall as he should be at the age of four, Rani added.

According to the registers of health complexes and other hospitals and clinics in Sylhet and Moulvibazar, many children were admitted to the hospital with severe malnutrition and height complexity.

Different non-government organizations (NGOs) are working along with local governments to address the problems.

Experts said the United Nations (UN) gave importance to nutrition to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As per SDG-2, a country needs to become hunger-free, achieve food security and remove all types of malnutrition. So, the government should give more importance to the issue of malnutrition, they said.

Child specialist Professor Dr Monir Hossain of Dhaka Shishu Hospital said many mothers are not aware of the food of their children from the first day of birth to two years of age. Even, they are not aware of the required level of nutrition that is essential for their children from her pregnancy to two years of birth.

According to a survey by UNICEF, the low education rate of mothers and socio-economic barriers are related to the state of malnutrition among children.  

As per the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS) 2014, in Bangladesh, the percentage of dwarf children from one to five years is 36 percent while it was 41 percent in 2011, 43 percent in 2007 and 51 percent in 2004. As per the report, the number of short children is higher in Sylhet division which was 49.6 per cent in 2014.

Dr Monir said adequate nutrition is needed for the overall development of the children. Otherwise, they would suffer mentally, he added. 

Lack of proper awareness of parents and early marriage are the main reasons behind the malnutrition of children, he continued.

Director of the Department of Nutrition Dr Md Mohammad Younus said the rate of malnutrition is decreasing.  

“There is a ‘Pusti Corner’ in every upazila health complex across the country. Besides, field-level employees of the department are counselling the parents about the importance of nutrition for their children and mothers,” he said.

“It would not be an exaggeration to say that the consequences of malnutrition are too broad, too deep and too costly for society to ignore,” he said.