54,000 children die in country a year due to malnutrition:Daily Sun

  Some 54,000 children die annually in Bangladesh due to complications relating to malnutrition as the country is exposed to high rate of child and maternal malnutrition in Southeast Asia, experts say. They also pointed out that 45 percent of deaths among the children under five years are caused by malnutrition since millions of children suffer from one or more forms of malnutrition, including low
birth weight, stunting, underweight and vitamin A and iodine deficiencies. It is malnutrition that puts the children into a state of compulsion to usually suffer from psychological impairment and different forms of mental disorders that appear as threats to their future development, they opined. Health experts of the country have expressed their deep concern regarding child deaths for malnutrition as their mothers consume inadequate food and do not provide breast milk to the infants. Director of Nutrition and Food Safety Centre of the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B) Tahmid Ahmed said early pregnancy causes many difficulties as both age and weight of the adolescent girls are not conducive to giving birth. “As a result, the weight of a baby inside the mother’s womb cannot be increased and the mother has to give birth to an underweight baby, who suffers from malnutrition,” Tahmid said. Dr Latifa Shamsuddin, a senior gynaecologist and renowned health expert, said there is a relation between child marriage and malnutrition. So, child marriage has to be prevented to address the malnutrition issue properly in the country. “Zinc is an essential component of human body especially of the pregnant women as its deficiency can cause a serious health hazard to the pregnant women and new mothers,” she added. “Many infants in the country’s rural areas die of malnutrition, which can be easily reduced by providing breast milk to them and by creating awareness among mothers about breastfeeding,” she said. She urged the government to launch a nationwide campaign through mass media to create awareness among mothers about breastfeeding so that mothers can provide breast milk to their infants which can help reduce mortality from malnutrition to a great extent. Prof Dr Aynun Afroz, a renowned child nutritionist, said a large number of poor and illiterate mothers do not know the positive impact of breastfeeding. Scientific implication of breast milk is very important to proportionately develop the immune system of infants, she observed. Nearly half of the children of the country are suffering from different degree of malnutrition, said Prof Dr Khursheed Jahan of Institute of Nutrition and Food Science, adding that poverty and lack of knowledge on food values are major factors for high malnutrition rate in the country. “We should take steps for raising purchasing capacity of poorer section of people so that they can buy daily food items for their family members,” she added. Dr Khurshid also said malnutrition travels from generation to generation because the malnourished mothers give birth to malnourished babies. If they are girls, these children often become malnourished mothers themselves, and this vicious cycle continues. The future generation (children) of Bangladesh is in a vulnerable position on nutritional matters as millions of them are growing up bearing the curse of malnutrition. Contacted, Dr Mohammad Sharif, director (MCH) of Directorate of Family planning, said that their workers like family welfare assistants (FWA) and family welfare visitors (FWV) are working at the field level. “They are working for the welfare of the children and women and disseminating the message on how women may get nutritious food value from their food,” he added.