 Stunting: A scar and a woundStunting (low height for age) in children under age 5 is an indicator of long-term or chronic malnutrition, reflected by inadequate growth of the long bones in a child’s body. Stunting is caused by insufficient or poor quality food, poor feeding patterns, inadequate care of children and women, frequent infection and poverty. Malnutrition, mostly in mild or moderate forms, contributes to more than half of all child deaths and to diminished capacities for those who survive. Low birthweight may be a result of the mother’s stunting (because of her poor nutrition) and is a significant precursor to childhood stunting.In 35 countries (44% of the 80 countries that have data), at least one in every three children under 5 is stunted. In 10 of those countries, half or more of the children are stunted. Stunting weakens immunity, impairs learning capacity and work performance and affects overall quality of life. For girls, it presents an additional risk: It is associated not only with low adult height but also with smaller pelvic size, increasing the risk of obstructed labour and thereby of maternal mortality. Stunting can be either the ‘scar’—reflecting an early period of growth failure—or the ‘wound’—an indication of ongoing deficient growth. Height variations resulting from ethnic differences do not affect stunting data, as such variations do not tend to show up until adolescence. Children of stunted parents tend to suffer the same fate—adults who began life stunted but whose diets later improved still tend to give birth to stunted children.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||