600,000 reasons to deal with stunting

A RECENT study published by an International NGO, Save the Children confirms the fate of 600,000 children, (48%) of under 5 years children in Papua New Guinea face a major threat of stunting.
The scenario is the same even today as it was 10 years ago when it was first reported in a survey report titled ‘Household Income and Expenditure Survey 2009-2010’ conducted by National Statistics Office in collaboration with the World Bank.
There has been very little or zero change to alleviate the prevalence of stunting despite PNG’s rapid progression and growth in the mining resources sector.
Human integral development on the other hand has remain stagnant.
Stunting, a chronic form of malnutrition is now at the national crisis level and is indeed a ‘national emergency’. PNG has the highest prevalence of stunting rates in Australasia.
It has reached the highest level of public health significance rating.
If nothing is done, these children will become a lost generation.
Children are considered stunted when they are below the standard height for their age.
Stunting is caused by poor nutrition in the first critical 1000 days of the child’s life, from pregnancy to two years of life. Stunting has detrimental human costs that affect the potentials of the these children
Stunting in early childhood can cause structural damage to the brain, impairing a child’s growth and development and this is irreversible. During pregnancy and lactation, mothers need higher energy and nutrition needs to support fetal development while maintaining their own energy and nutrient needs. After birth, the child has increased nutritional needs to support skeletal and muscular development which is largely completed by their second birthday. This period is very crucial and also considered the ‘window of opportunity’.
It is during this period the rapid brain development occurs with the capacity for speech production, seeing, hearing and higher cognitive functions, learning and motors skills that occurs in the brain during this period.
Lack of protein, energy and essential nutrients such as iron, iodine, zinc, folate and vitamin B12 during the first 1000 days affects the structural and functional development of the child.
It is therefore very important that mother attend all four antenatal visits during pregnancy to receive iron supplementation and child receive vitamin A and deworming tablets.
There is a very strong body of evidence to show that it is impossible to recover from these impairments despite improvement in nutrition after 2 years.
Studies done in five countries, (Brazil, Guatemala, India, Philippines and South Africa) confirmed that weight gain after two years did not lead to improvement in cognitive functions and schooling.
Other studies also done in South Africa and North Korea confirmed that children who had experiences chronic under nutrition or stunting before the age of two suffered from irreversible intellectual impairments.
Not only does stunting claim lives of unfortunate children, it poses a major barrier to economic development of PNG.
The economic impact of childhood stunting was brought to attention of global policy makers when World Bank estimated that stunting could decrease low-middle-income nations GDP by 2-3% per year.
Recent study in PNG conducted by Frontier Economic showed the effects of stunting of under five years children on the economy of PNG in three dimensions.
There is hope and solution.
Stunting can be prevented through better healthcare and improved nutrition in the first 1000 days of life from conception until aged two. To realize all of these, communities need support.
The Government must provide support to nutrition, water supply, sanitation, immunization and antenatal care services in all health settings.