Bugle.com – Malnourished children are characterized by their weight and height. When their weight does not meet the age-appropriate criteria, parents should immediately consult a doctor. Because nutritional problems can interfere with the growth and development of children and their intelligence.
The Ministry of Health revealed that there were 4 nutritional problems suffered by children. Namely weight faltering, underweight, malnutrition, and malnutrition. After the 4 nutritional problems are resolved, a reduction in the prevalence of stunting will occur.
“If you want to reduce stunting, you have to reduce previous nutritional problems, namely weight faltering, underweight, undernutrition and malnutrition. If the four cases of nutritional problems don’t go down, it will be difficult for stunting to go down,” said Director General of Public Health Maria Endang Sumiwi, in an official statement, Friday (27/1).
What is weight faltering, underweight, malnutrition and malnutrition?
1. Weigh Faltering
Impaired growth begins with the occurrence of weight faltering or weight not increasing according to standards. This means that the weight is stagnant and does not increase.
2. Underweight
Children who are losing weight, if left unchecked, can become underweight and continue to be wasting. If this condition persists, it will lead to stunting. The easiest symptom to see if a child is underweight is that his body looks thin.
3. Malnutrition
Children with malnutrition are usually characterized by a thin body and lack of appetite. Height and weight do not match.
4. Malnutrition
Usually followed by clinical symptoms such as malnutrition or other diseases due to low nutrition.
Solution
More appropriate prevention of stunting must start from the upstream, namely from the time of pregnancy until the child is 2 years old or the first 1000 days of life. In the period after birth, what must be prioritized is growth monitoring which is carried out regularly every month. Thus it can be known early if the child has a growth disorder.
The results of the 2022 Indonesian Nutritional Status Survey (SSGI) show that there has been a decrease in the stunting rate by 2.8 percent compared to 2021. The stunting rate in 2022 has fallen from 24.4 percent (in 2021) to 21.6 percent. So it fell by 2.8 percent,” said the Head of the Health Development Policy Agency (BKPK), Syarifah Liza Munira.
Although the stunting rate has decreased, the rates of wasting and under-fives have increased. Namely, the wasting rate rose 0.6 percent from 7.1 percent in 2021 to 7.7 percent in 2022.
Meanwhile, underweight increased 0.1 percent from 17.0 in 2021 and 17.1 percent in 2022. Underweight is a condition when a child’s weight is below the average or normal range. Then in the case of overweight children under five there is a decrease of 0.3 percent from 3.8 percent in 2021 to 3.5 percent in 2022.
“At the first point (before birth) it is important to intervene during pregnancy. And the second intervention is when the baby gets MP-ASI after the exclusive breastfeeding period,” explained Liza.
The government provides additional food to overcome nutritional problems in Indonesia. The government will switch from supplementing food with biscuits to supplementing food with local food.
“So starting in 2022 in 16 regencies or cities, because we want to see whether additional food with local food can be done or not,” said Endang.
The provision of additional food with local food is served ready to eat by Posyandu and cooked by cadres with a special menu that meets their nutritional needs, both protein and other nutritional needs. Apart from providing additional food with local food, the most important thing is providing education to mothers about how to provide good food for children.
A number of factors have contributed to the reduction in stunting, including initiation of early breastfeeding, exclusive breastfeeding, provision of animal protein and nutritional counseling.
Editor : Edy Pramana
Reporter: Marieska Harya Virdhani
source: www.jawapos.com