Under Nutrition in Less than Six Months Needs More Attention
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47203/IJCH.2024.v36i03.026Abstract
Under nutrition in infants is a critical public health concern with far-reaching consequences on child growth and development, particularly during the crucial first six months of life(1). This formative period lays the foundation for future health outcomes and any disruption in adequate nutrition can lead to a host of long-term issues, including stunted growth, compromised immune function, and impaired cognitive development(2). According to the Black et al. (2008) study, these factors are responsible for approximately 2.2 million deaths annually and contribute to 21% of disability-adjusted life-years in this age group(3).
The 2011 United Nation Children's Fund (UNICEF) Global Nutrition report indicated that more than 311 million children (32% of all children) were undernourished. Globally, more than four million children died within a year of their birth due to inadequate nutrition.In addition, poor infant nutrition has been shown to be responsible for more than 40% of deaths in children younger than 5 years, particularly during their first month of life(4). The adverse effects of infant undernutrition include physical disabilities, poor school attendance, diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular disease which may affect the subsequent generation(5).Therefore, undernutrition may have negative long-term consequences for a country’s economic growth and development. The impact of undernutrition on child growth and development starts in utero. Maternal undernutrition has been associated with poor foetal growth which may result in low birth weight (LBW, weight at birth less than 2500 g), small for gestational age (SGA, newborns weighing less than the 10th percentile of a sex-specific reference population) and preterm birth (PTB, children born before 37 gestational weeks(6). In 2016, UNICEF reported that 15% (20 million) of newborns worldwide had LBW and 10% (15 million) PTB. In 2010, 32.4 million newborns worldwide were SGA. The prevalence of SGA was 27% in LMICs, with SSA having one of the highest prevalence(7). The first six months of life are characterized by rapid growth and development, as well as a heightened vulnerability to nutrition-related risks(8).
Downloads
References
De Onis M. Child growth and development. Nutrition and health in a developing world. 2017:119-41.
World Health Organization. Reducing stunting in children: equity considerations for achieving the Global Nutrition Targets 2025.
de Onis M, Dewey KG, Borghi E, Onyango AW, Blössner M, Daelmans B, Piwoz E, Branca F. The World Health Organization's global target for reducing childhood stunting by 2025: rationale and proposed actions. Matern Child Nutr. 2013 Sep;9 Suppl 2(Suppl 2):6-26
Aguayo, V. M., and Menon, P. (2016) Stop stunting: improving child feeding, women's nutrition and household sanitation in South Asia. Maternal & Child Nutrition, 12: 3–11
Said-Mohamed R, Pettifor JM. Life history theory hypotheses on child growth: potential implications for short and long-term child growth, development and health. Am J Phys Anthropol. 2018;165(1):4–19.
Richter LM, Orkin FM, Roman GD, Dahly DL, Horta BL, Bhargava SK, Norris SA, Stein AD; COHORTS investigators. Comparative Models of Biological and Social Pathways to Predict Child Growth through Age 2 Years from Birth Cohorts in Brazil, India, the Philippines, and South Africa. J Nutr. 2018;148(8):1364-1371
Wrottesley SV, Lamper C, Pisa PT. Review of the importance of nutrition during the first 1000 days: maternal nutritional status and its associations with fetal growth and birth, neonatal and infant outcomes among African women. J Dev Orig Health Dis. 2016;7(2): 144–162.
Lee AC, Kozuki N, Cousens S, Stevens GA, Blencowe H, Silveira MF, et al. Estimates of burden and consequences of infants born small for gestational age in low and middle income countries with INTERGROWTH-21st standard: analysis of CHERG datasets. BMJ. 2017;358:e26–e36.
Budree S, Goddard E, Brittain K, Cader S, Myer L, Zar HJ. Infant feeding practices in a South African birth cohort-A longitudinal study. Matern Child Nutr. 2017;13(3):e12371. 13.
Letourneau N, McCaffrey G, Nyanza EC, et al. Somatic growth from birth to 6 months in low birth weight, in Bukavu, South Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo. BMJ Open. 2018; 66(4):245–53.
Christian P, Lee SE, Donahue Angel M, et al. Risk of childhood undernutrition related to small-for-gestational age and preterm birth in low- and middle-income countries. Int J Epidemiol. 2013; 42(5):1340–55
Mishra PS, Chaurasia H. Nutrition status and socio-economic inequality among children (0-59 months) across different regions of Uttar Pradesh. International Journal of Scientific Reports. 2021;7(11):532.
World Health Organization: Guidelines on Optimal Feeding of Low Birth-Weight Infants in Low- and Middle-Income Countries. Geneva, World Health Organization, 2011.
Gizaw AT, Sopory P, Sudhakar M. Barriers and coping responses towards infant and young child feeding practices in rural Ethiopia: a descriptive qualitative study. BMJ open. 2023;13(10):e077008.
Nguyen PH, Kachwaha S, Tran LM, Sanghvi T, Ghosh S, Kulkarni B, Beesabathuni K, Menon P, Sethi V. Maternal diets in India: gaps, barriers, and opportunities. Nutrients. 2021;13(10):3534
Raiten DJ, Bremer AA. Exploring the nutritional ecology of stunting: new approaches to an old problem. Nutrients. 2020;12(2):371.
Kimani?Murage EW, Wekesah F, Wanjohi M, Kyobutungi C, Ezeh AC, Musoke RN, Norris SA, Madise NJ, Griffiths P. Factors affecting actualisation of the WHO breastfeeding recommendations in urban poor settings in K enya. Maternal & child nutrition. 2015;11(3):314-32.
Johnson A, Kirk R, Rosenblum KL, Muzik M. Enhancing breastfeeding rates among African American women: A systematic review of current psychosocial interventions. Breastfeeding Medicine. 2015;10(1):45-62.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Aarthi Muthukumar , Shailaja Mane, Pramila Menon, Purushottam Giri
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
