Kelsey Harrison
August 8, 2014
Malnutrition
Malnutrition is one of the biggest healthcare problems that I noticed while working in Swaziland. The lecture Dr. Pawelos gave really opened up my eyes to malnutrition, in kids especially, when we were out working in the field. Before traveling, I assumed that we would see malnutrition cases but I wasn’t aware of how many we’d see and how many different types of malnutrition we would encounter. There are several types of malnutrition, in general, but there are a few main types occurring in the kids that live in Swaziland. The different types of malnutrition are occurring due to the types of food available to the kids, and how many meals they are given a day. However, there are also steps being
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Malnutrition also results from the inability to absorb or metabolize nutrients (Malnutrition). The different types of malnutrition result from a deficiency in a specific nutrient or vitamin. For example, kwashiorkor is a condition caused by severe protein deficiency (Kwashiorkor). It is based on a diet of mainly starchy foods such as grains, cassava, plantain, and sweet potatoes. Kwashiorkor causes potbelly, edema, weakness, irritability, dry skin with rash, reddish-orange hair discoloration, diarrhea, anemia, and fat deposits in the liver (Kwashiorkor). A less extreme type of malnutrition is called marasmus. It is also a lack of protein and energy with sufferers appearing skeletally thin (Types of …show more content…
First and foremost, the most important way to fight malnutrition is to educate people. A lot of Swazi’s don’t have the basic knowledge about human health that Americans learn in school. They should be educated to know what constitutes as a healthy, balanced diet. They also can be taught how to get it. Some Swazi children are being taught basic farming skills, so if they do not have the money or a way to get to a grocery store or a market, they are able to have a few vegetables or fruit at their house (UN World Food Program). They could grow maize, or cabbage. This would help exponentially because then if the kids are orphans, or if they become orphaned, they will still be able to eat some foods they have growing in their yard. The kids will also have the knowledge of how to grow things. They will also know or continue to learn in school what they need to eat to stay healthy. We need to work with the Swazis so we could learn what works with their culture and what doesn’t. For example, the co-founder of SOHO told us a story about a farming club that came to Swaziland to plant fruits and vegetables for the people. The group didn’t work with the Swazi’s; they just planted their food in a lot of big gardens all over in hopes that it would feed some of the people. The only problem was, they didn’t take into account the Swazi’s cultural beliefs. Once the gardeners left, a lot of Swazi’s went and ripped up every garden the
World hunger is a very important epidemic because of the risks or implications it imposes on the rest of the world. Juveniles are the utmost apparent victims of under-nutrition. 2.6 million children die as a result of hunger-related causes each year. 66 million school-aged children go to classes hungry across the developing world, with 23 million in Africa alone. One in four of the world's youth are kept from growing due to malnutrition. In developing countries the proportion can rise to one in three. A strong maternal-infant bond provided through psychosocial stimulation is essential for positive child development. The formation of this bond at the beginning of life is an essential step that sets the stage for cognitive,emotional, and social development later in life. Feeding and other care practices provide opportunities for psychosocial stimulation and help to establish a positive attachment between caregiver and child.(WHO) Under-nutrition magnifies the effect of every disease, such as measles,diarrhea and malaria. Asia has the largest number of hungry people (over 500 million) however S...
The world hunger is the deadliest disease in the world today, despite the fact that there is more food on earth, but fewer people cannot have access to this food, or even get the opportunity to grow some due to poverty, or lack of good soil to grow crops. World hunger is caused when natural resources become destroyed by earthquakes, or civil war. Another reason is drought and flooding. World hunger is also an issue in undeveloped countries because of political corruption, poverty, environmental issues, overpopulation, economics, and pestilence. It is sad to see people dying from malnutrition, and starvation every second. While we that have it doesn’t seem to appreciate it but waste it instead of helping those that in need of it. As you can see this a real problem, as debated in my visual
Nutritional anthropology applies the anthropological approach to nutritional disciplines by studying and understanding how the interactions of social and biological factors affect the nutritional status of individuals and populations. Dettwlyer conducted a medical anthropological research assessing the nutritional status of individuals living in a population in Mali, Africa. She defined it as to be a biocultural approach because the research did not only pertain to the biological system of the people but cultural dogmas, infant feeding practices, socio-economic status, political-ecological factors also contributed as much. Death rates and child malnutrition rates are very high in Mali, it being one of the poorest countries of the world. Therefore, Dettwlyer being a nutritional anthropologist extends her study to the children of Mali who are malnutritioned as a result of their birth in poor families; because their mothers have a low status in their prosperous extended family households; ethno-cultural tenets, etc.
Across the globe in impoverished third world countries an estimated 50,000 children die of starvation every day (Quine 36). We have all seen the images of these children--bloated bellies, fly covered, bulging eyes--in television pleas by various charitable organizations. While these images sicken us, we idly sit by (often flipping the channel to avoid them), refusing to help these less fortunate kids. The problem is made worse by the ever-increasing population. Even the wealthy countries like our own now have a starvation problem (Quine 29). Admittedly, the problem here is less severe, but it still exists. With our current level of technology, the resources at our disposal, and a commitment to help those less fortunate, we can and must end starvation around the world before it gets worse.
"Hunger and Malnutrition." KidsHealth - the Web's Most Visited Site about Children's Health. Ed. Mary L. Gavin. The Nemours Foundation, 01 May 2012. Web. 12 May 2014.
The child may also suffer repeated infections, such as gastro-enteritis, due to poor hygiene. A child with marasmus is very underweight, with no body fat and wasted muscles. Kwashiorkor occurs when a child is weaned later than normal and receives starchy foods low in protein. In this disease, the child's abnormally low body weight is often masked by water retention, which makes the face moon-shaped and the belly swollen. Deficiency diseases are usually associated with lack of vitamins or minerals.
This assignment will discuss a trust adapted version of the Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool (MUST). It will demonstrate an understanding of theoretical knowledge used to develop the assessment tool. The assignment will focus on three components within the tool; discussing the reliability and validity when used in a clinical environment. A reflection of my own experience using the tool will be included and linked to aspects of reliability. Any issues with reliability will be identified and suggestions given on how they can be corrected to aid future use.
Chronic food shortages are widespread, and malnutrition levels among young children are high. These statistics are slightly higher in rural as opposed to urban areas.... ... middle of paper ... ...
Niger and Sierra Leone, the two poorest countries in the world only have a GDP of around 500 dollars per capita. Which, compared to Canada’s 27,000 dollars per capita, is considerably low. In the 48 poorest countries, an average of 2$ a day is made by each working person. Imagine living off 2$ a day in Canada, you couldn’t even buy a Big Mac and a drink for 2$. This is making starvation a very serious problem in 3rd-world countries, not to mention their low immune systems, used for preventing disease, not working right from the lack of nutrition.
In order to prevent kwashiorkor from ever developing, it is important to make sure to follow the nutritional guidelines and have a balanced diet of carbohydrates, fat, and protein. Kwashiorkor can most simply be prevented by making sure that a child eats enough protein after they are weaned off of their mother’s milk (Rossouw 1989). Often times, in third world countries the children are weaned off their mother’s milk and then put onto a maize diet that does not offer adequate amounts of protein rich food. The Estimated Average Requirement (EAR) “for protein is 0.66 grams of protein/kg of body weight. The EAR for protein increases during pregnancy, breastfeeding, period of rapid growth, or recovery from serious illnesses, blood losses, and burns” (Schiff 2013). The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that 10 to 35 percent of a person’s daily caloric intake come from protein. Furthermore, in order to prevent kwashiorkor from developing, children ages 1-3 years need to have 5-20 percent of their energy from protein, children ages 4-18 years need 10-30 percent from protein, and adults need 10-35 percent protein. In other words, kwashiorkor is an avertible disease that can be prevented if infants and children are consuming at
In conclusion, fighting food insecurity and poor nutrition among low income families, particularly in developing countries, is a complex task. It requires many different strategies as there are many factors influencing hunger and why it occurs. The three strategies chosen are effective on their own, but implemented together will address many more of the determinants causing this issue. The World Food Programmes strategy is a quick fix when solving this problem and is not sustainable, but alongside Oxfam and MicroLoans strategies, they would all make an extremely positive change in how food insecurity looks today.
Hunger is the most pressing issue we face. One out of every eight people in the world today suffers from chronic undernourishment caused by food scarcity. 19,000 kids die everyday from hunger. The world has more than 1.5 times enough food to feed everyone on this entire planet although with some people making less than two dollars an hour, it is hardly imaginable to be able to. At least the number of people who die everyday of famine is going down every year because more and more people care. We want to keep this number going down not only by the year, but also by the day. If we want this to happen, we have to take action. Now.
Hunger therefore reflects not absolute food scarcity but rather people's lack of access to resources—whether at the individual, household, community, or national level—that are needed to produce or purchase adequate food supplies. The reasons people cannot obtain enough food are several different historical patterns of equality. These patterns include the inequalities between Africa and its former colonisers or contemporary financiers, and between Africa's rich and poor. It also includes equality between members of the same households, where food and the resources needed to obtain it (such as land and income) are often unevenly distributed between men and women, old and young. Whatever the reasons for food deprivation, when the result is malnutrition it can do damage, increasing diseases such as malaria, rickets, anemia, and perhaps acquired immune deficiency syndrome aka AIDS.
Eliminating world hunger is an obtainable goal if a few small steps are put into place, with the focus being on growing more food. There are many options that should be utilized in the effort to end world hunger. If under developed countries were taught how to farm their own food and given even minimal supplies and tools it would eliminate a large percentage of the hunger complication. Education is another important dilemma that relates directly to under nourished countries such as Asia and Africa. In the United States there are many government sources for women and children to assist with food sources such as WIC (Women, Infant, and Children) and SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). Other countries could implement similar programs
The second type of hunger is considered to be named as chronic or endemic hunger, because it is not felt by the majority of people. However, it can hold some subtle but significant changes in human body developing. For example, children may be underweight on the background of their coevals. The lack of the daily consumption of the vitamin A may cause problems with visio...