Bohol Province – According to the 2015 National Survey, the nutrition profile of Bohol revealed serious cases of stunting, wasting, and underweight among children in the province. With 53,955 children affected, Bohol had the highest rate of stunting among children under the age of 5 in region 7. This prevalence was significantly higher than the national and regional prevalence (33.4 percent and 37 percent, respectively). Stunting in Bohol is considered a public health problem using WHO cut-off points for severity and magnitude.
The World Health Organization defines stunting is the delayed growth and development that children experience from poor nutrition, frequent infection, and a lack of psychosocial stimulation. If a child’s height for their age is more than two standard deviations below the WHO Child Growth Standards median, they are considered stunted.
Early-life stunting, particularly in the first 1000 days from conception to the age of two, causes delayed growth and negatively affects the child’s ability to function. A few of these effects include impaired cognition and academic performance, low adult income, lost productivity, and, when combined with excessive weight gain later in childhood, a higher risk of developing chronic diseases linked to inadequate nutrition as an adult.
But there are steps we may take to prevent stunting, especially in the first 1,000 days following births and up until the child is two. In children who are stunted, certain effects can be minimized or even reversed.
What causes stunting?
Several common causes of stunting include:
- Having a lack of access to a variety of foods and poor nutrition.
- Lack of access to safe drinking water and poor sanitation.
- Inadequate medical care for moms and their children.
- Inadequate parent-child attachment and/or psychosocial stimulation.
It is important to ensure that mothers are healthy before and during pregnancy, have access to a nutritious diet, clean water, sanitation, and hygiene facilities, and have proper care to recover from illness and poor health to prevent stunting. // DMO II Jenelyn A. Guillena
REFERENCE:
World Health Organization (https://www.who.int/)