This chapter covers nutritional concerns for children and adults. Adequate nutrition plays a critical role in child development and growth and in preventing poor health outcomes across the lifecycle. The nutrition topics for children are anthropometric assessment of the nutritional status of children under five years of age based on children’s height, weight, and age; anemia status measured by hemoglobin; infant and young child feeding practices and counseling, child growth monitoring, micronutrient supplementation, and deworming. The topics for adults covers anthropometric assessment of the nutritional status of women and men 15 to 49 years of age based on height and weight (as well as age for adolescents 15-19 years of age); anemia status measured by hemoglobin; and women’s dietary practices. The presence of iodine in household cooking salt is covered at the household level.
Chapter 9 presents information on nutritional interventions that are provided during the antenatal period including maternal nutrition counseling, breastfeeding counseling, food or cash assistance, deworming, iron-containing supplementation and the sources of the supplements, and postnatal breastfeeding counseling and observation. Chapter 10 presents information on child feeding practices during diarrhea.
Anthropometric indicators for young children and for adults provide measures of nutritional status. Marked differences, especially in regard to height-for-age and weight-for-age are often seen between different subgroups of children within a country. Adolescent and adult nutritional status has important implications for the health status of the adolescent or adult as well as that of the children that women may bear.
Adequate nutrition is critical to child development. The period from birth to two years of age is important for optimal growth, health, and development. This period is one marked for growth faltering, micronutrient deficiencies, and common childhood illnesses, such as diarrhea and acute respiratory infections (ARI).
Optimal feeding practices reported in this chapter include early breastfeeding, exclusive breastfeeding and mixed milk feeding during the first six months of life, continued breastfeeding, feeding from a bottle, timely introduction of complementary feeding at six-eight months of age, frequency of feeding, and the diversity of foods fed to children between 6 and 23 months of age. In addition, unhealthy infant and young child feeding practices are also reported.
Malnutrition in adolescents and adults results in reduced productivity, an increased susceptibility to infections, retarded recovery from illness, and for women, heightened risks of adverse pregnancy outcomes. Moreover, a woman who has poor nutritional status as indicated by a low Body Mass Index (BMI) or low BMI-for-age, short stature, anemia, or other micronutrient deficiency has a greater risk of obstructed labor, of having a baby with a low birth weight, of producing lower quality breastmilk, of mortality due to postpartum hemorrhage, and of morbidity of both her and her baby.
Micronutrient deficiencies are a result of inadequate intake of micronutrient-rich foods, the inadequate utilization of available micronutrients in the diet due to infection, and genetic abnormalities. Measures of micronutrient status (e.g. anemia), consumption of vitamin-A rich and iron-rich foods, micronutrient supplementation for iron and vitamin A, and salt iodization are included in this chapter for both women and children.
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