ILOILO City – The Supplemental Feeding Program (SFP) of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has improved the eating habits of children.
Mothers themselves affirmed that their children’s attitude especially towards eating vegetables and other nutritious food changed for the better, according to nutritionist dietician Diana Alcantara, SFP focal person of DSWD Region 6.
“Ang bata kon sa balay wala gana magkaon. Pag abot sa feeding center, ma-encourage sya sa pagkaon kay may upod sya. So naga-develop ang pagkaon ‘ya especially sang mga vegetables,” said Alcantara.
She also noted the positive impact of the program especially to children in remote barangays.
“Daku ang nabulig. Iban nga kabataan dira man lang sa center makakaon sang mga pagkaon nga indi ma-serve sa ila balay, especially sa mga pigado. Makadto na sila sa center kun kis-a indi kapamahaw,” said Alcantara.
SFP target beneficiaries are the following:
* children from two to four years old (in Supervised Neighborhood Play or SNP)
* children from three to four years old enrolled in daycare centers
* five-year-old children not enrolled in Department of Education preschools but in child development centers (CDCs)
* five to 12 years old malnourished children outside CDCs
Aside from feeding, beneficiaries are also taught proper hygiene such as proper hand washing and good table manners.
Alcantara said the SFP also helps fight malnutrition in the region.
For this year, the province of Negros Occidental has the highest number of feeding program beneficiaries at 73,033 children followed by Iloilo (61,317 children), Antique (21,687 children), Capiz (18,835 children), Aklan (13,336 children), and Guimaras (4,749 children).
POOR NUTRITION
Stunting is prevalent in Antique province. In fact, it has the highest prevalence in Western Visayas at 13.36 percent, data from the National Nutrition Council (NNC) showed.
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines stunting as the impaired growth and development that children experience from poor nutrition, repeated infection and inadequate psychosocial stimulation.
Children are defined as stunted if their height-for-age is more than two standard deviations below the WHO Child Growth Standards median.
Stunting in Region 6 in 2017 had a prevalence of 10.8 percent, down from 11.46 percent in 2016 and 2015’s 13 percent, according to regional nutrition program coordinator Nona Tad-y in July.
Poverty deprived stunted children of nutritious food necessary for growth, she said.
The 10.8 percent prevalence was equivalent to 77,481 stunted children less than five years old, and 27,545 severely stunted. These NNC figures were based on 1.2 million preschoolers in Region 6 weighed in 2017.
Meanwhile, the province of Negros Occidental had the highest wasting prevalence at 4.07 percent, according to Tad-y.
Wasting or thinness indicates, in most cases, a recent and severe process of weight loss, which is often associated with acute starvation and/or severe disease, stated WHO.
Impaired growth has adverse functional consequences on the child, it added. Some of those consequences include poor cognition and educational performance.
Next to Antique with a high stunting prevalence was Negros Occidental (11.37 percent), followed by Iloilo (10.56 percent), Capiz (10.40 percent), Aklan (9.79 percent), and Guimaras (7.13 percent).
Among cities in Western Visayas, Bacolod had the highest prevalence of stunting at 21.08 percent followed by Talisay City (17.27 percent) and Victorias City (12.76 percent).
The three municipalities with high stunting prevalence were Don Salvador Benedicto in Negros Occidental (31.23 percent), Lemery, Iloilo (21.24 percent) and Libertad, Antique (18.55 percent).
Aside from poverty, another factor that contributed to stunting and wasting was poor nutrition education, said Tad-y.
Parents may not know they were serving to their children food that did not have nutritional value, she explained.
In the area of wasting, the regional prevalence in 2017 was 3.44 percent, slightly down from 2016’s 3.73 and 2015’s 4.9 percent.
Negros Occidental topped in the wasting prevalence rate (4.07 percent), followed by Antique (3.63 percent), Iloilo (3.08 percent), Aklan (2.91 percent), Capiz (2.52 percent), and Guimaras (1.87 percent).
Among municipalities, the three with the most number of wasting cases were Moises Padilla in Negros Occidental (8.41 percent), Don Salvador Benedicto also Negros Occidental (6.41 percent), and Madalag, Capiz (5.52 percent)./PN
