Childhood Malnutrition
Fighting for Malnutrition
“There is enough food for everyone’s need but not for everyone’s greed.”- Mahatma Gandhi
There are so many reasons for poverty and hunger in the world today. The biggest reason for this situation is unequal distribution of land, water resources and income among people in the world.
Malnutrition in Sri Lanka:
  
Recently released surveys reveal that acute malnutrition among Sri Lankan children and women is rising as a result of the country’s 30-year civil war and widespread poverty.
Sri Lanka is a developing country and fighting for success in every direction after 30 years of civil war.Peace, education, health and economy was destroyed as a result of the war.
There are large numbers in Sri Lanka without adequate food: hungry persons, malnourished or undernourished. The greatest tragedy of malnutrition is that it prevents children from reaching their full potential for growth and development. Malnutrition during childhood has serious and long lasting consequences. According to the reports in Sri Lanka, 14% of children under five who suffer from acute malnutrition and nearly 58% of infants and 38% toddlers are anemic.
In particular, on a daily basis, children of school age do not consume nutritious and healthy meals. Biggest issue here is inadequate information for parents about nutritional benefit and their eating habits (the choices of the food).
Malnutrition and Anemia increases among children:
Dealing with malnutrition:
- The development of a national policy on nutrition. It will require the concerted efforts of several sectors and the incorporation of nutrition considerations into macro-economic and government policies.
- Get the attention of government and leaders of health care system.
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Supply Education materials to mothers about Nutrition, how to prepare food and how to use their own resources to create a nutritious meal.
Promoting good eating habits:
- Promotion of appropriate Infant and young child feeding. The first priority therefore is to ensure that for the first six months children are exclusively breastfed.
- Child malnutrition is linked with mother’s malnutrition, education and knowledge. Teaching effectively will occur through seminars, education materials, and demonstrations for how to prepare good nutritious meals.
Main factors contributing to malnutrition:
- Childhood malnutrition in <_x0021_xml:namespace prefix="st1" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"/>Sri Lanka range from disease factors and inadequate dietary intake to knowledge and cultural factors.
- Inappropriate infant and young child feeding practices.
- Poverty, which includes low household income, inadequate basic infrastructure, and limited access to media, education, affects nearly 23% of households in Sri Lanka
- Micronutrient deficiencies: The most common micronutrient deficiencies in children and women are iodine, iron, and Vitamin A deficiency disorders.
- Diseases: diarrheal disease has not changed over time is poor access to safe drinking water and sanitation. Around one third of households have no access to sanitation and about one quarter has no access to safe drinking water.
  
  
Our Approach to Fight Malnutrition
- Educate parents about nutritional food
- Support Government to take right steps to fight
- Help manufacturing food using local crops - easily accessible foods
- Use ready-to-use foods
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