Over 400 malnourished kids to undergo rehab

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Monday, November 6, 2017
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ILOILO City – The city government’s nutrition council has devised strategies to address cases of malnutrition, said City Health Office (CHO) chief Dr. Bernard Caspe.

These strategies include a feeding program and “adoption” by health personnel of malnourished children.

A total of 439 of the city’s 1,107 identified malnourished children whose ages ranged from zero to six years old are set to be rehabilitated.

According to Caspe, the city’s malnutrition prevalence is 1.84 percent, lower than the national rate of around five percent.

Under its “Operation Timbang” the nutrition council was able to weigh 61,485 of the 75,028 total pre-school population in the city. Of those weighed, 254 were found to be “severely underweight” while 853 underweight.

“This is not alarming but we want to address the problem,” said Caspe.

The city health officer said he wanted each personnel of the nutrition council to “adopt” a malnourished child to make sure that these kids are given the necessary nutritional intervention.

The personnel would be made answerable if no improvement is seen on their adopted child at the end of the year, said Caspe.

This means they have to make a follow up on the children such as monitoring the food the kids eat and the medical tests they need to undergo that are available in health centers, among others, said Caspe.

The names of the malnourished children will be provided to district health centers so they can be properly checked.

“They will be reevaluated to know their problems,” said Caspe.

The CHO has embarked on a feeding program using donated fortified rice. He said they hope to find other donors.

Caspe said he would also be talking to the City Social Welfare and Development Office to train their personnel on supplemental feeding. He said they wanted the food being provided to all day care centers of the city to be uniform.

Nutritionists were also advised to teach parents how to prepare a well-balanced meal for their children. Caspe noted that the feeding in day care centers is done only once a day up to six months. Thus, food preparation at home is critical. (PNA)
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