The 2015 Operation Timbang (OPT) Plus results reveal a declining trend in under and over nutrition among children less than six years old in Metro Manila. The OPT Plus is a massive weighing of preschool children 0-71 months old done every year by Barangay Nutrition Scholars (BNSs) with the help of other community-based health and nutrition workers to identify and locate malnourished children. The OPT data also guide local nutrition committees in planning programs and services for malnourished children and their families.
A declining trend in all forms of malnutrition (underweight, overweight, wasting or thinness and stunting) among preschool children was noted from 2014 to 2015. A total of 1,756,792 were weighed and measured for height in 2015.
|
Indicators |
2014 |
2015 |
|
Underweight-for-age |
2.47% |
2.17% |
|
Overweight-for-age |
1.44% |
1.14% |
|
Stunting |
9.12% |
7.80% |
|
Wasting (Thinness) |
3.49% |
2.85% |
This noted improvement in the nutritional status of preschool children in Metro Manila can be attributed to the efforts of the local nutrition committees in planning and implementing nutrition programs and projects to fight the double burden of malnutrition in the region. Priority nutrition actions anchored on the Philippine Plan of Action for Nutrition (PPAN) are continuously being implemented in the communities. Among those are the promotion of good nutrition including the Ten Kumainments or the Nutritional Guidelines for Filipinos, intensive campaign on exclusive breastfeeding and proper complementary feeding, supplementation of vitamin A and iron, and improved coverage of maternal, newborn and child health and nutrition services. Additional nutritionist-dietitians and BNSs were also hired in 2015 by several local government units (LGUs) to augment human resources for nutrition which contributed to the increased coverage of health and nutrition services.
To sustain the nutrition improvement in the region, LGUs need to continue to invest more in nutrition and consider it as a priority program. Nutrition actions should be focused more on women during pregnancy and children from birth up to 2 years of age or the first 1,000 days of the child. These years are the so-called “critical window of opportunity” which shapes the long-term health of the child. The right nutrition during this window can have a great effect on a child’s ability to grow and learn and become a healthy individual in the future. (TAR/NPC MEVF/NNCNCR)