Stunting does not come easy. It happens over time, and means that a child has endured painful and debilitating cycles of illness, depressed appetite, insufficient food and inadequate care. Many children do not survive such rigours, many of those who do survive carry long-term deficits in mental capacity along with losses in stature.

Short-changing children

Low weight at birth, insufficient feeding, inadequate care and nutrient depletions caused by repeated bouts of illness culminate over time in a child whose height is less than that of other children of the same age. Such stunting is a standard marker of a failure in early growth.

Deprivations in feeding and care that impair growth in the critical first years may also reduce a child’s cognitive development and learning ability, often leading to poor school performance and dropping out.

Some 39% of children under five in the developing world are stunted – around 209 million children. Stunting rates are highest in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

Inadequate feeding and repeated illness are the immediate causes of stunting in the young child. This vicious cycle is itself a result of poverty and the consequent inability of families to adequately care for their children. A lack of clean water supply in a poor community, or a long distance between home and health clinic, for example, affects the level of care that can be given.

Stunting also occurs when babies are born underweight because the mother was poorly nourished or because she was herself stunted.

Once established, stunting and its effects typically become permanent. Stunted children may never regain the height lost and most will never gain the corresponding weight. And when the window of early childhood is closed, the associated cognitive damage is often irreversible.