Syrian Crisis Humanitarian Report

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This research paper will focus on the prevalence and interventions combating iron deficiencies among Syrian mother and child refugees in Jordan. As a result of the Syrian civil war, an estimated 2.8 million refugees have fled Syria to and moved to nearby countries such as Jordan, Turkey, and Lebanon. According to the 2016 Syrian Crisis Humanitarian Report, “as of August 2016, there are over 600,000 Syrian refugees living in Jordan; 79,074 are living in the Za’atari and 54,422 in the Azraq camps (“Syrian Crisis 2016 Humanitarian Report”, 2016).” The Za’atari camp is the main camp sheltering the Syrian refugees, however, there remains a lack of food, sanitary, and medical resources.
Anemia is most commonly caused by a lack of iron in the blood …show more content…

There are poor attitudes and misconceptions towards infant and young child feeding (IYCF) regulations. For instance, Syrian mothers have been more likely to use infant formula over breast milk in Syria, and this problem has worsened with the unregulated distribution of baby formula in the earlier days of the crisis. Few mothers or caretakers understood the benefits or importance of exclusive breastfeeding for infants for the first six months. Refugees often reported they exclusively breastfed, but were found to give other fluids to their infants (Sebuliba, 2015). Another common misconception was that bottle feeding was preferable, and that stress on a woman’s body prevents her from breastfeeding. Older generations with poor education on the benefits of breastfeeding often counsel younger women to give breastmilk substitute, and younger women almost exclusively follow this advice. Misconceptions amongst caregivers and mothers during the discussions included poor advice, telling women to “give water and herbs,” or that “breastmilk alone is insufficient for infants,” and “traditional approaches are preferred.” Fänder’s study found that mothers have been breastfeeding without iron supplementation after their child has reached 6 months of age. They have also used non-iron fortified cow's milk as weaning food, frequently fed their babies tea, and rarely fed them meat due to its high cost. During the winter, it is difficult to transport food and grow produce, so mothers have to resort to feeding their children watered down foods. (Luce, 2015). Given the cultural norms in Syria, girls become mothers at a very young age and were pressured to wean female infants off of breastmilk to increase the chance of becoming pregnant, hoping that the next child

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