Preventing malnutrition in children under 5 years old: Focusing on quality

(Baonghean) - Through reviewing the Resolution of the 17th Provincial Party Congress, among the 7 basic targets of the health sector, the target of reducing the rate of malnourished children under 5 years old did not meet the set target. According to the Resolution of the Congress, by 2015, the rate of malnourished children under 5 years old in the province was 15%, but up to now the rate is still high at 18.3%...

Xop Chao Village, Luong Minh Commune, Tuong Duong District, located in the Ban Ve Hydropower Reservoir, people's lives still face many difficulties. At the Xop Chao Village Kindergarten, in the 2014-2015 school year, out of 5 children, 2 were malnourished and stunted; all 5 children studying at the school did not eat at the boarding school. Talking to teacher Vang Thi Nga - who is taking care of the children here, we learned that: Depending on their age, each child receives support from the State for food and other benefits. However, this amount is almost entirely deducted from contributions such as money for toys, books, and crayons for children. Currently, children's meals depend on the conditions of each family. Ms. Nga said: Parents spend all day working in the fields, leaving their children a bundle of sticky rice and some food like fish, meat, bamboo shoots, vegetables... Talking to Mr. Hap Van Nhi, 37 years old, a resident of Xop Chao village, we learned: Every vaccination period, medical staff of Luong Minh commune promote nutrition care for children, but because life is still difficult, the issue of children eating enough nutritious food has not been given attention.

Propagating nutritional practices for children in Chau Thang commune, Quy Chau district.

In Ky Son, the rate of malnourished children is also alarming. Doctor Vi Thi Hien, Deputy Head of the Reproductive Health Department, Ky Son District Medical Center, said: In 2013, through weighing children in the whole district, it was discovered that 23.15% of children did not meet the standard in weight and 34.37% did not meet the standard in height. In recent years, although the center has implemented plans to prevent and combat malnutrition for children, it has encountered many specific difficulties, especially the customs, habits, and economic conditions of the ethnic minorities in the mountainous areas, so most mothers stop breastfeeding their children before 6 months and feed them rice early; weighing children is not easy when the parents are busy working in the fields, to mobilize children to weigh, there must be financial support, at least 10,000 VND/child for parents to take their children... In addition, due to cuts in subsidies for village health workers, collaborators are not equipped with knowledge on preventing and combating malnutrition as well as communication skills; The organization of nutritional practices is very limited.

In urban areas, towns and villages, children are again facing malnutrition and obesity. According to a preliminary survey at a kindergarten in Vinh City: Unreasonable and unscientific nutritional care is creating a situation of overweight and obesity in this school of approximately 10%... According to teacher Nguyen Thi Chau - Vice Principal of Hong Son Kindergarten (Vinh City): "The problem of overweight and obese children does not lie in school meals but in family meals. Many families feed their children with excess protein, fat, lack of vitamins, lack of minerals, meat portions 2 to 3 times higher than the recommended nutritional level and conversely, the amount of vegetables consumed is very low, besides, children are sedentary"... Scientists warn: Many children are obese but are very likely to be malnourished due to lack of iron, iodine, calcium, vitamin D, anemia, rickets. Obesity is a leading risk factor for dangerous chronic diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, myocardial ischemia, and cancer.

According to a report from the Provincial Center for Reproductive Health Care, the work of preventing and combating malnutrition for children under 5 years old has improved since 2011: 80% of pregnant mothers have participated in nutrition practice classes; 90% of mothers with children under 2 years old have participated in nutrition practice; 90% of children under 2 years old have growth charts and monthly weight monitoring; 95% of malnourished children under 2 years old have their weight monitored monthly; 95% of children under 5 years old have their weight monitored and measured to assess the malnutrition rate for districts and communes. The communication work on preventing and combating child malnutrition has included opening classes on fatherhood and motherhood, nutrition practice classes for pregnant mothers and mothers with children under 2 years old, classes have been opened regularly at commune, ward and provincial levels... However, due to the precarious food security situation in many areas; Inter-sectoral coordination has not been as effective as expected; a part of the population is not getting enough food in terms of quantity, customs are still backward; some villages do not have electricity, so communication is limited. The combination of the above causes has made the malnutrition rate in Nghe An still high, higher than the national average.

Through reviewing the implementation of the Resolution of the 17th Provincial Party Congress of the Health sector, the rate of malnourished children under 5 years old by October 2014 was 18.3%. This figure is quite far from the target set by the Resolution of the Congress of 15%. In the face of this situation, to promote the prevention and control of malnutrition in children under 5 years old, the Provincial People's Committee recently issued Directive No. 10/CT-UBND dated August 8, 2014 on Strengthening the prevention and control of malnutrition in children under 5 years old in the province in the new situation, aiming to increase participation, promote leadership, direction and effectively implement the national target program on prevention and control of malnutrition in children.

Dr. Que Thi Tram Anh - specialist in charge of the child malnutrition prevention and control program, Provincial Center for Reproductive Health Care said: To implement the Provincial People's Committee's Directive, the Department of Health has developed a specific plan. Accordingly, the health sector continues to consolidate and improve the operational capacity of the network for malnutrition prevention and control; promote communication and nutrition education to improve the understanding of people and those who directly raise children under 5 years old; fully invest in tools such as scales and measuring sticks for the community; This plan aims to reduce the rate of weight malnutrition in children under 5 years old by 0.5%/year, and the rate of height malnutrition by 0.4%/year, on average until 2020... Activities in the fourth quarter of 2014 and 2015 include: communication education, training of collaborator networks, nutrition practices for pregnant mothers, mothers with young children and mothers with malnourished children, weighing children under 2 years old, organizing training on the National Nutrition Strategy for grassroots levels, high-dose Vitamin A supplementation, organizing full vaccination of all types of vaccines for children of the right age, receiving and implementing the school milk program, preschool students are given milk. However, the most important issue is always the effectiveness of implementation; that awaits the joint participation.

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