Nutrition

Millions of children, adolescents and mothers in Bangladesh are malnourished, perpetuating an intergenerational cycle of malnutrition. 

The consequences of inadequate care and repeated infections, paired with not getting enough nutrients from a varied diet of vegetables, fruits, and protein can be long-lasting. It can lead to impaired growth and development, known as “stunting”, and to severe thinness, which is known as “wasting”. On the other end of the malnutrition spectrum is overweight and obesity, which hampers the lives of more and more children and adolescents. 

Some children are at more risk of malnutrition than others. Those born in urban slums, tea gardens or the Rohingya refugee camps, to the poorest families and with uneducated mothers, are more likely to suffer from stunting and wasting. 

In Bangladesh, nearly 1 in 4 children under 5 years of age are stunted, which means more than 3.7 million children in the country are too short for their age (MICS 2025).  These children are more likely to fall ill, struggle to learn, and suffer from long term health problems. At the same time, nearly 1 million children (12.9 per cent) are affected with severe and acute malnutrition (wasting), making them more vulnerable to disease and death. 

Children’s nutritional needs evolve in every stage of development, but the first two years of life are critical. Inadequate nutrition during this period can cause lasting harm to a child’s rapidly growing body and brain. The situation of child feeding practices in Bangladesh is concerning, with 43 per cent of infants not receiving the benefits of exclusive breastfeeding. Only 29.5 per cent of children aged 6-23 months old consume a minimum acceptable diet. 

An estimated 604,000 children are born with low birth weight, which is driven by child marriage, early pregnancy, and poor maternal nutrition. Out of the 32 million adolescents, nearly 50 per cent are girls, and almost 22.3 per cent of them are already married or pregnant with their first child. More than half of all pregnant women in Bangladesh are anaemic, putting both mothers and babies at risk even before they are born.  

Multiple micronutrient deficiency is thereby still a public health issue among young children and pregnant women. Prevention of maternal anaemia is critical to the health and nutrition of mothers and their babies.  

Good nutrition is one of the building blocks for economic development. Investing in nutrition delivers substantial returns for human development across the life course, strengthening cognitive abilities, productivity, and economic growth. Every US $1 invested in nutrition yields an estimated US $16 in economic returns. Nutrition is also linked to GDP growth: for every 10 per cent increase in income per capita, the prevalence of stunting declines by 3.2 per cent, while a similar rise in income leads to a 7.4 per cent reduction in wasting.