Malnutrition: A Worldwide Phenomena

[zawza1990]

Malnutrition, not known to many, does not only refer to poor nutrition due to lack of healthy foods to eat but as well as over-consumption of it.

Malnutrition affects all ages but is more dominant in children below 5 years old. The World Food Programme states that the first two years of a child is the most critical stage because this determines if the child would be of a normal health or be malnourished.

Needless to say, parents should pay extra attention to their kids at an early age to prevent malnutrition. Children that are diagnosed as undernourished will have difficulties in their school performance and hard time keeping up with the activities that healthy children can easily do. Malnutrition, in its sense, can be the cause for mental and/or physical disability, illness and worst, death.

During pregnancy, the mother should eat healthy and proper foods, take the vitamins she needs and do the appropriate physical activities for her exercise. That way, the baby would come out healthy. But, the role of a mother does not stop there, in fact, it is just the beginning. It is recommended that mothers exclusively breastfed their child for the first 6 months. Onwards, they can decide to mix it with powdered milk but the presence of breastfeeding should not be eliminated until the child reaches 3.

Cases about mothers being "humiliated" because of breastfeeding their child in public places have been known. This can be one reason why most (or not) mothers decide to only breastfeed their child at home and switch to powdered milk when going out. Yet, it should be widespread that there are laws protecting mother's in their right to breastfeed their child. Aside from that, breastfeeding is really beneficial.

http://healthmagazinehouse.com/malnutrition-a-worldwide-phenomena/